


Tools at Our Disposal

by OccamyEggshells



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Found Family, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-09-20 01:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17012637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OccamyEggshells/pseuds/OccamyEggshells
Summary: Ever since Paris, the war has escalated into a larger conflict than anyone could have ever imagined. Political imbalances, daily attacks, and loved ones lost to the other side bring to question the morality of what is right and wrong. The Scamander family finds themselves in the center of conflict as they must decide what sacrifices they're willing to make for the future of all wizarding society.





	1. Theseus's Meeting

“This is Lizzie and she’s in charge of all of you,” Theseus says, cutting through the bickering that had taken over his office. Seven ministry officials turn and scowl in confusion as Theseus lifts his four-year-old niece onto the top of his desk. Theseus collapses down in his seat with a deep sigh, pulling a file closer to him so he can work.

“Mr. Scamander, if you could please take this seriously,” Devenport says impatiently.

Elizabeth Scamander straightens her back and stomps a foot on the desk, trying her damned hardest to be intimidating. Her pigtails, big cheeks, and childish pout aren’t doing her any favors. If anything, the glare and crossed arms are making her look more adorable. “Uncle Thee is busy tryin’ to work so you gotta go.”

Theseus nods his approval of this message as he flips to the next page. The officials are so dumbstruck by the presence of a child he can finally focus and get some work done. He should babysit for Newt and Tina more often.

“Scamander, I really don’t think that a child should be here for this conversation, and this is most definitely a conversation we need to have now.”

Elizabeth narrows her eyes at Rutherford. “I’m not a child.” She says “I’m four and a half.” She raises four fingers to prove her point and even holds her thumb up to the knuckle up to emphasis the half. “‘Sides,” She continues, much to Theseus’s utmost delight. “I know everything you were gonna say anyway.” 

“This is unprof-” Devenport starts before Elizabeth interrupts.

“You’re mad ‘cause Grin-,” Elizabeth frowns, too intimidated by the pronunciation of the name to continue, “‘cause the bad guy is attackin’ people and you don’t think the aurors are workin’ hard ‘nough to stop ‘em.”

“This is ridiculous,” a man in back mumbles.

“The aurors are workin’ hard though, it’s just hard ‘cause of all the stuff goin’ on and you are all only upset ‘cause it makes you look bad for politic stuff.” Elizabeth scrunches up her nose, not really sure what any of the stuff she just said out loud makes sense. “You,” she points to Rutherford “only care ‘bout the ‘pecifics of what the aurors are doin’ ‘cause you wanna look good when you surprise everyone with your idea to run for Minister for Magic.”

Theseus drops his quill as he looks up at Rutherford with wide eyes. The plump man glares down at the four-year-old, his face getting redder and redder with each word Elizabeth has said.

“Since when are you running for Minister?” One of the men on the committee accuses Rutherford. “Didn’t you say that we all have to stick to our posts in times of crisis and not make any bold moves?”

“I’m not running for Minister.” Rutherford grits out, his beady blue eyes glaring straight in the defiant brown ones of a child.

“Yes, you are,” Elizabeth says, her words gaining more confidence as she all but completely stares into Rutherford’s soul. “I can hear it in your head.”

Rutherford sputters and turns his glare to Theseus. “I feel as though I should not need to remind you how unprofessional it is to bring a child into the office. You need to teach her some damn manners as it’s obvious she’s not learning it from her parents.” With that message, Rutherford leaves, taking the other members of the committee with him.

Elizabeth, completely aware of how tense she’s made things between the committee and how absolutely infuriated she made the man, waves cheerfully as they go.

Theseus tosses the half-finished report onto the desk and takes Elizabeth off the desk. He sets her easily back onto the ground. Elizabeth wastes no time running back to where she was playing with dolls in the corner of the office.

“Running for Minister,” Theseus mumbles to himself, completely in disbelief. He brings his fingertips to his temple in a futile attempt to stop an oncoming headache. Although he’d been suspicious of Rutherford being up to something for a while, he didn’t think it was something so bold as to run for a position run by a political ally of his own. The war was reaching its final stages and it could go either way. Now is not the time to make the people feel as though alliances in the government are falling apart.

“Why’s it fallin’ apart?” Elizabeth asks, dropping her dolls to pay complete attention to her uncle.

“Grown up stuff.” He says simply, packing those thoughts away in a deeper part of his subconscious as to not worry his niece about it. “Thank you for figuring out what that guy wanted.”

Elizabeth perks up, hopping onto her feet. “You’re gonna get me ice cream for helpin’?”

Theseus laughs and nods. “Yeah, yeah, just let me finish these reports.”

* * *

“I don’t understand why they would want to cause infighting above the upper branches of the Ministry,” Tina says, accepting a cup of coffee from her husband. Newt kisses the side of her head and takes the third seat at the table.

“I’d think it’s because Fawley is doing a terrible job,” Newt turns his head toward his brother, his eyes just barely lifting to meet his as if it’s some sort of challenge.

“Fawley’s in a delicate position,” Theseus says after a moment of hesitation.

“A position he’s not managing well,” Tina interjects “everyday Grindelwald is gaining more and more followers and Fawley is too hesitant to do anything about it.”

“And risk blowing the war into a bigger proportion that is now? Grindelwald thrives off of attention and any word the ministry says will be contorted to be used against us.” 

“There was a time to wait and listen, but there is also a time to strike!” Tina is getting more passionate about this by the second.

Theseus shakes his head. “You just said that you didn’t understand why they would cause infighting on the upper branches of the ministry.”

“I don’t understand why  _ Rutherford _ would want to cause in fighting on the upper levels of the ministry when he’s politically aligned with Fawley.” She takes Newt’s hand under the table, knowing Newt’s getting uncomfortable with the arguing.

Theseus sighs and leans onto his forearms, bringing himself closer to his brother and sister-in-law. “Listen, Rutherford is sneaky and I’m not sure that there’s anyone who truly knows what his plan is. People in his little party today seemed shocked by what Lizzie had to say.”

Newt scowls. “What does Lizzie have to do with this? Why would our toddler be around this man and his cronies?”

Theseus looks to Tina, who he feels he can appeal to the most at this moment. “When you asked me to watch her I got called in for a meeting. I thought I could take her with me and spend some time in the office, get some paperwork done, that kind of thing.”

“Go on,” Tina nods, her eyes narrowed in suspension.

“Well, Rutherford, Devenport, Yaxley, Malfoy, and the others who run around in that kind of circle came into my office. They wanted detailed reports of where each auror was stationed and the information behind every operation we have planned. We’re already jumping through all these hoops and I wouldn’t let them make rash decisions about the people in my auror family. Then, I remembered Lizzie was there so I thought I just might use her to get them to shut up for a bit.”

“And then she figured out about Rutherford’s plan,” Tina finishes, connecting the dots of the story.

Newt shakes his head. “Lizzie isn’t some sort of tool that you can use to better your career.”

“This isn’t my career, Newt,” Theseus says defensively. “Knowing what the big men are thinking could end this war. You have two young children to think about Newt, don’t you want them to grow up in a world without violence?”

“I don’t want my daughter being turned into a weapon to be used at anyone's disposal. She doesn’t need to know everyone’s secrets, she doesn’t need to make herself a target.” With that statement, Newt stands up from the table and goes downstairs into the basement.

“I’m not turning her into a weapon,” Theseus defends to Tina. “Lizzie has a skill that could save lives, she’ll hear people’s secrets anyway, and being your daughter already has a target on her back.”

Tina opens her mouth to say something, but decides against it and frowns. “I want what you want.” She says after taking a few minutes to process her thoughts. “I want to know what’s going on with the ministry so we can have a better idea of how to go about this all. But you have to understand that we’re talking about a four-year-old.  _ My daughter. _ As an auror, I think that it’s definitely not going to hurt our chances. But as a mother, I can’t condone this.” Tina scrunches her eyebrows. “It ain’t any different than how Grindelwald thinks he can use Credence.”

Theseus shifts uncomfortably in his seat, as the war progresses, he finds the moral ground becoming grayer and grayer.

“You want to use a natural legilimens to get into the heads of everyone around you for the benefit of everyone around you.”

Theseus nods, there’s no point in denying it. He doesn’t like where Tina is going with this.

“You want to use my daughter for your own greater good.”

“That’s taking this out of context and you know that,” Theseus argues. “Comparing me to Grindelwald is taking it too far. You, Newt, Lizzie, and Phoenix are my family. I would rather die than cause any of you harm.”

Tina sighs. “Don’t use Lizzie for an agenda anymore. I won’t have her used like Queenie is.” With that, Tina also stands from the table. She goes upstairs to see if the children are awake from their naps yet.

Theseus grabs his coat off the rack and heads out to the street to disapparate.


	2. Talking it Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacob and Tina think about Queenie, while Elizabeth struggles to understand the purpose of secrets.

Elizabeth sits on the floor of the nursey and makes faces at Phoenix who’s standing up in his crib. The one-year-old is aimlessly babbling to his older sister. Tina sits behind her daughter and carefully brushes her hair. More now than ever, Tina is grateful that Elizabeth’s legilimency only operates on the surface level. Ever since arguing with Theseus, Tina’s been having nightmares about Elizabeth burning in a bright blue flame as Tina stands helpless to watch. She’s been doing her best to keep the mental image buried, but the four-year-old can tell that something is wrong.

Phoenix raddles the bars, no longer content in the confines of the crib. A soft whimper goes past his wobbling lips. Tina can tell a meltdown is about to happen so she hands the brush to Elizabeth before standing up and lifting Phoenix out of the crib. She holds her son on her hip and carefully pushes back his dark brown hair. 

On the floor, Elizabeth huffs. She doesn’t bother to hide the scowl she’s sending her mother’s direction.

“I’ll finish brushing your hair in a moment,” Tina says, ignoring the child’s glare. Phoenix gurgles and kicks his feet, almost as if he can tell he’s interrupting a moment between his mother and sister.

It seems as if Phoenix was having a thought process along that simple connection because Elizabeth huffs again. She kicks some blocks laying nearby on the ground before storming out of the room. Phoenix contently rests his head on Tina’s shoulder and grabs her shirt into his fist. After giving him a kiss on the head, Tina goes downstairs with her son.

Newt sits at the kitchen table, drawings for the next edition of  _ Fantastic Beasts _ are spread out around him. He’s drawing pictures of bowtruckles as evidenced by Pickett standing on the table instead of lounging in Newt’s pocket.

“Lizzie’s throwing a fit,” Tina says, setting Phoenix in the highchair.

Newt hums his acknowledgment as he finishes the finer details of his sketch. Phoenix coos and reaches out to Pickett even though he’s too far away to reach. Pickett, who is not at all fond of Newt’s grabby children, chirps at the boy before crawling up Newt’s shirt and into his pocket.

Now that his model is gone, Newt sets down his pencil and rises from his chair. He gives Tina a quick kiss on the cheek and takes over making breakfast so his wife and go upstairs and finish getting ready.

“I’m not throwin’ a fit, ya know,” Elizabeth mumbles, her entire body hidden behind the doorframe leading into the bathroom just off the kitchen. When Newt glances over, he can see the shadow of his daughter against the wall, a hairbrush dangling freely from the bottom of Elizabeth’s curls. She must’ve gotten it stuck.

“You have been rather upset lately,” Newt says, and as he always does when he’s actively aware Elizabeth is probably listening to his thoughts, he pushes all of the stress of the war away. “Come over here and eat breakfast with us, your mum will be disappointed if a little fight between you two means she won’t get to see you again before work.”

Elizabeth huffs and stomps out of the bathroom. The brush keeps hitting her back as it gets even more tangled in her hair, but Elizabeth seems to be keeping it there out of spite. She pulls herself onto the chair, her eyes trained on Newt’s back as she tries to calm down. Phoenix whimpers when he looks at her. Not even the pictures of one of her favorite creatures can cheer her up.

* * *

Tina and Theseus don’t end up making it to the traditional Friday family dinner as another attack requires their full attention. Nagini and Bunty aren’t feeling well, and Yusuf usually only comes if he’s in the country. Newt is upstairs comforting a sick Phoenix, which leaves Elizabeth in the kitchen with Jacob.

“Do you ever just get really, really, really mad for no reason?” Elizabeth asks with her feet swinging from the stool she’s sitting on. 

Jacob thinks about it for a moment as he stirs the soup he’s making. “I do sometimes.”

Elizabeth frowns a bit and ponders this on her own. After a moment, she gently probes Jacob’s mind. Quickly, she understands that Jacob is the kind of person who finds relief from his anger by talking it out. Elizabeth smiles softly to herself, she likes talking to Uncle Jacob because he’s the only person who she feels isn’t bothered by her legitimacy. It’s easier for her to open up to him.

“They’re hidin’ somethin’,” Elizabeth says, deciding to follow Jacob’s model.

“They?” He asks, turning his body so he can look at her.

Elizabeth frowns, forgetting sometimes that other people can’t read her as easily as she can read them. “Mom and Dad.”

“I’m sure that if Newt and Tina are keeping something from you, it’s for a good reason,” Jacob says easily. His thoughts back up this statement.

“It’s...” Elizabeth struggles to express how it makes her feel. She tries projecting her thoughts out, but like always, it falls upon a deaf mind.

Jacob grabs bowls to put the soup in and doesn't interrupt as he waits for Elizabeth to figure out what to say.

“I’m not like Phoenix,” She finally decides. “I’m not a little baby. I’m four-and-a-half.” Tears are prickling in her eyes. “I just wanna help. Everyone’s all sad all the time and when they’re pretendin’ it just makes it even worse.”

Jacob takes a seat in the stool next to her and hands her a handkerchief. “War is a stressful time,” he tries to explain, “your mom and dad are doing their hardest to make sure you have a good childhood. The war should be the last thing you worry about. Us grownups have it handled.”

Elizabeth bundles the handkerchief in her hand instead of using it for the tears going down her cheeks. “People are easy to hear when they’re hurtin’, it’s like their minds are cryin’ for someone to listen. But nobody hears ‘em but me.”

Jacob doesn’t need to say anything, he just wraps his arms around her shoulders and lets her cry into his shirt. In his mind, he thinks comforting thoughts.

Once Elizabeth has cried herself out, she pulls away from her uncle and looks up at him.   “You’re hurtin’ too.” she says softly, “I can feel it.”

“Everyone’s got hurts that they’re carrying around with them,” Jacob says simply.

“You’re thinkin’ of the pretty lady,” Elizabeth mumbles, choosing now to use the handkerchief to dry her cheeks. “The one mom always thinks’ about.”

And almost as if a dam has broken, Elizabeth fully sees the woman she’s only seen in glances, the one who her mother locks away in a lockbox in her mind. She can hear the woman laugh, she can see her smile, and because she’s receiving these thoughts from Jacob, she can feel her heart swell.

“What happened to her?” Elizabeth asks, frowning as a dark feeling of sorrow swallows the memories.

“That’s not important right now,” Jacob says, getting up from his spot. He brings the bowls from the counter to the table and pushes his thoughts away.

Elizabeth feels more tears well in her eyes as Jacob actively locks her out for the first time.

“I just wanted to help.” She says, sadness gripping on her heart. Elizabeth climbs down from the stool and runs upstairs.

* * *

“Lizzie knows about Queenie.”

Tina feels her heart drop as she finishes hanging up her coat. She turns around and stares wide-eyed at her husband who sits on the couch nursing a cup of tea in his hands.

Newt’s making eye contact with her to make sure that she’s okay. “She read Jacob’s mind. He said he didn’t mean for her to see it; it just sort of happened.”

Tina bites her lip and eases herself into the armchair. Newt knows that this is a sign that she doesn’t want comfort, she wants to process this on her own.

“I don’t want my own children to know about their aunt.” Her voice doesn’t crack, but it does wobble. “She was my whole world Newt, and now I can’t even think of her name because I don’t want the kids to know how close the war is to our doorstep.” Tina moves her body to look out the window. It’s easier than looking at Newt, who still has his sibling.

“Queenie was supposed to be my maid of honor. She was supposed to be the godmother to our children. She was supposed to teach Lizzie to use legilimency.” Her hands are shaking.

Newt sets his tea down on the coffee table and moves to kneel in front of Tina’s chair. He rests his hand on her knee but doesn’t make her turn to look at him. He’s trying to provide silent support.

“You don’t even know the terrible thing I was thinking of earlier,” Tina whispers, her hand moving to rest on top of Newt’s even though she’s still distancing herself.

“What is it?” Newt asks gently.

“I was thinking about what Theseus said, about Lizzie helping in the war. I told him that I wouldn’t let him use our daughter in the same way Grindelwald is using my sister,” she takes a shuttering breath, “but then I got to thinking. If somehow Lizzie could help find Queenie and bring her home, would I allow it to happen? All I want is to protect my family, but Queenie is my sister, and Elizabeth is my daughter. I know what decision I have to make at the end of the day, but damnit if it isn’t the most painful decision in the world. And I haven’t even had to make it.” Only now does Tina allow her emotions to get the better of her. She turns towards her husband and opens his arms to him. Newt stands up and pulls Tina out of the chair so it’s easier for him to wrap his arms around her. They stand in the middle of the living room, Newt’s arms wrapped around Tina securely as she cries into his shoulder.

Because Newt has been pushing his stress aside and because he has such great empathy for his wife, he starts crying too. He buries his face in his wife’s hair.

Elizabeth sits on the staircase and watches her parents stand in the dim light of the living room. Her lip wabbles as she brings her knees up to her chest. She’s heard everything her mother said and her heart feels as though it has been beaten. Quietly, as to not reveal she’s been eavesdropping, she sneaks back upstairs and into her brother’s room.

Phoenix lays asleep in his crib, his face red and warm from the fever. Elizabeth creeps closer and gently picks up his hand through the bars of the crib.  _ I love you _ . She thinks, squeezing his hand softly as if to assure herself that he’s there.  _ I’m always going to protect you _ . She feels as though by making this promise to Phoenix, she’s breaking the cycle her mother is torturing herself thinking about.

At that moment, Elizabeth feels the invasiveness of familiar magic. Phoenix wakes up and looks at her with their matching brown eyes. Deep in Elizabeth’s mind, she feels a foreign being as if someone else were inside her mind instead of her being in theirs. She presses back against the presence in her head and finds herself with a sudden realization. Elizabeth gasps aloud. “You’re like me.” She whispers softly to her brother.

Phoenix simply yawns and falls back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I joined Tumblr
> 
> https://take-these-occamy-eggshells.tumblr.com/


	3. A Question of Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theseus isn't too happy with how Dumbledore has been treating him. Newt and Tina are worried about each other. And Dumbledore isn't too happy about being kept in the dark.

Tina’s back hurts from the hunched position she’s been in for a good hour now. Across the square, Theseus perches on a rooftop, his eyes repeatedly scanning over the quiet village they find themselves in. The light of the full moon provides enough light to not have to use their wands. With a sigh, Tina moves to sit down on the pavement, giving up her view from the low wall for just a moment as her muscles sag in relief. Perkins, a junior auror, shakes her head at Tina from her spot behind a bush. Tina sends a quick glare before poking her head back up from behind the low wall, her eyes training the square once again. The only change from an hour ago to now is the position of the duck that has been lounging in the fountain. 

Theseus had been insistent that a source gave him this location as the next stop of Grindelwald’s ambush through England. As of late, the dark lord has been building up his following in Spain, France, Germany, Austria, and other parts of Central Europe. Tina isn’t sure why Grindelwald would choose to lay another take in Britain, especially in a small village with little significance. 

The duck ruffles its feathers, and Tina sees Theseus’s head snap towards the movement. Her brother-in-law, like herself and all the other aurors, is a barely visible seeable silhouette. The only reason Tina knows that it’s Theseus on the roof is that he had made sure everyone was aware of each other’s positions. 

As her eyes sweep over the square again, her mind starts to wander. By this time, Newt would have put the kids to bed hours ago, and the creatures are all probably settled for the night. It was snowing in Dorset when she left which means the ground will be white when she returns. Maybe tomorrow they can take Elizabeth and Phoenix out to play in the snow. Tina shifts her weight and watches the duck fly away. If Theseus doesn’t give them the day off, she’s going to give him a piece of her mind.

The aurors stay in position long into the night. Tina’s eyes struggle to stay open, but she pinches herself in the side throughout the stakeout to keep herself alert. Water trickles from the fountain innocently as the village projects a storybook type atmosphere. All is calm until morning. Theseus sends the signal to return to the ministry.

* * *

“Theseus,” Dumbledore greets easily, a warm smile on his face, “you look tired.” Dumbledore takes a seat across from Theseus’s desk and the head auror can’t help but feel like he’s still a schoolboy even though he’s the professional in this setting.

“We spent over twelve hours staking out Godric’s Hollow last night and nothing happened,” Theseus says the bags under his eyes testify to his story. “Sir, this would be so much easier if we knew what Grindelwald was after, then we could take it to protect, or we could put it in the Scamander vault in Gringotts.” Theseus tiredly runs his hand through his hair. “We’re already spread so thin and we wasted an entire night.”

Dumbledore’s expression seems gets more somber. “I can’t tell you what Grindelwald is after,” he says, “but I have that particular item under control. You’re merely in place to catch him should he go snooping around.”

“I can’t keep doing this,” Theseus expresses, verging on the edge of anger, “the aurors on my team are like a family to me, we need to end the war before I lose anyone else. When we go out and do your little errands, we’re taking time away from things that could actually prove to be beneficial. So, if you have this item under control then I won’t have my aurors posted in Godric’s Hollow again.”

“That’s a mistake,” Dumbledore says, leaning forward in his seat, “if you just trusted me...”

“This isn’t about trust.” Theseus finally snaps. He’s sick and tired of Dumbledore pulling that card. “And if you can’t understand that, then maybe you should go.” Theseus’s heart beats wildly in his chest for a moment. He feels like he’s just done something horribly wrong and at any minute he’ll get a howler from his mother.

Dumbledore stands up and shakes his head in disappointment. “I should hope that you’d change your mind, this war isn’t going to end in the way you’d expect.” With that, Dumbledore leaves.

* * *

“He questioned whether or not I trusted him, it’s infuriating.”

Newt hums his acknowledgment as he tosses the fresh meat into the Graphorn enclosure. “I warned you about this,” he says simply, handing Theseus the empty pail as he moves on to a different enclosure.

Theseus sighs and follows his younger brother, now he’s really wishing he waited for Tina to get home because he’d most certainly rather vent to her than his brother.  “I understand that you’re wary of Dumbledore, but he has helped us in the past. He has my loyalty, he just doesn’t have it blindly.”

“That’s good,” Newt says, knowing full well that Theseus isn’t looking for his approval anyway.

The older Scamander sighs softly and carries the bucket back over to Newt’s desk. He leans back against a wall and watches as Newt crisscrosses the different staircases in the basement to check on the various creatures. This basement is bigger than the one that was in Newt’s old London house. Its magic is sown carefully and carries the signature of Newt, Tina, Bunty, and himself. 

Theseus chuckles to himself as he remembers sitting next to Tina as they watched Newt, Bunty, Jacob, and Nagini try to wrangle all the creatures into the suitcase so they could take them to the new house. Personally, he’s glad that Newt decided to move after he and Tina realized they were expecting their first child. Visiting that old house without Leta made him feel like his whole universe was on a tilt.

“Do you trust Dumbledore?” Theseus asks curiously once Newt wraps up. He has this faint memory of Newt offhandedly mentioning that he declined Dumbledore’s offer to help with the move. Although that was years ago, his brother has gotten more distant from their former professor.

“Of course I trust Dumbledore,” Newt says, a look of confusion crossing upon his face. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You haven’t been on any errands.” Theseus stuffs his hands in his pockets as they walk up the stairs back to the main part of the house.

“He hasn’t asked me to go,” Newt says simply, “probably because he knows I’m the one watching the kids when Tina’s working.”

“Is Tina upset that I have her working so much?” In truth, he has had his sister-in-law putting in more time than some of the other aurors. It’s only because she is one of the people who he trusts most.

“ _ She’s  _ not upset,” Newt says, his shoulders slouching. “Being in the ministry is probably good for her, when she’s not on patrol, on a stakeout, or going over reports, she’s here pouring over newspaper articles for any mention of Queenie.” Newt sits himself down on the living room couch. Theseus takes a seat across from him, more than happy to let his brother vent as it’s been years since Newt’s opened up to him.

“I’m upset though,” Newt continues, startling himself by admitting this. It’s almost as if he hasn’t actively come to this conclusion until just now. “I miss her. She’s here physically, but she isn’t here mentally very often. Last week, we had this talk about Queenie and it was really nice to connect to her again, but then she put the walls back up. It’s like she’s refusing to acknowledge that she’s hurting and her pulling away makes me feel...” Newt struggles to find a word to describe it. “Sad? Useless?” 

Theseus opens his mouth to comfort his brother, but Newt cuts him off.

“It’s really nice that she has friends here. After Queenie and the move, I was worried she’d get lonely, but she’s so loveable that I’m not surprised that she’s made friends. I’m glad being an auror makes her feel like she has a purpose but,” he frowns, “I wish I gave her a purpose too.” He shakes his head, “I’m probably being stupid, but it’s just difficult. Everything feels overwhelming and I constantly have to monitor my thoughts because Lizzie could be listening.”

Getting up from the armchair, Theseus sits next to Newt and wraps an arm around his shoulder. Newt doesn’t lean into him, but Theseus isn’t sure how else to comfort him. There are a few beats of silence as Theseus thinks about what to say. Eventually, he just decides to cut straight through to the thought that must be plaguing his brother’s mind. “Tina loves you. You’re not failing her.”

Newt bites his lip, his fists tighten in his lap as he tries not to show emotions in front of his brother. “She’s worried about you actually,” he starts, feeling a bit guilty about airing what Tina as said about Newt without her consent, but he figures it must be serious if Newt is talking about it with him of all people instead of Jacob. “You didn’t want to pick sides in this war, but she knows you did for her sake and for mine. She feels like she brought the war to your doorstep and she wants to end it as quickly as she can before it truly affects you, Lizzie, and Phoenix. It’s already affecting you, of course, but sometimes it’s easier in our auror mindset not to focus too hard on that. Tina doesn’t want to stress you out. She wants to take care of you.”

“I want to take care of her,” Newt says desperately. Theseus rubs small circles in Newt’s back. “I want this all to be over and I just want...” Newt shakes his head, unsure again on how to express what he wants. “I just want all of this to stop. To pause.”

“Sometimes,” Theseus starts, “I wish Leta were still here. She had a way of putting us back in the right mindset.”

Newt doesn’t say anything to this and Theseus doesn’t have anything else to add. They sit for a moment and reflect before the door to the house opens.

Both brothers look up and smile weakly at Tina, who raises an eyebrow at the state she finds them in.

“Is everything okay?” She asks, her facing showing just how perplexed she is that they’re sitting next to each other, and they’re both on the verge of tears.

“Everything is fine,” Newt says, getting up to take some of the bags from her shopping trip. “Promise.” He smiles at her reassuringly, but Tina’s frown shows she doesn’t completely believe him.

Theseus stands from the couch and grabs the rest of the bags. “We were talking about Leta.” He looks down the ground to make it less awkward when Newt sends him a grateful look. 

Tina puts a hand on Theseus’s shoulder sympathetically. “I’m sorry.” She doesn’t need to add more. They both lost someone they loved that day.

There’s a pause as the three of them stand in the living room. Newt nods to himself before taking the things from Theseus and wandering off to the kitchen to put everything away.

“Did you want to talk about something?” Tina asks, taking off her coat and putting it on the rack. “You can talk and think freely, Lizzie’s spending the night at Nagini’s.”

“Newt told me that,” Theseus says simply. “Honestly, I’m pretty emotionally drained right now, I’ll probably just head home. We can talk about it later.”

Tina shakes her head. “Have a late dinner with me and Newt. I don’t want you going home all upset.”

Theseus smiles gratefully. “I appreciate it, but last time we all had dinner, it didn’t turn out too well.”

“Yeah, well.” Tina shrugs unapologetically. She starts walking toward the kitchen. Social graces have Theseus trail after her. “We settled that, didn’t we? We’re Lizzie’s parents and we came to our decision and you’re going to accept that. So it’s handled, water under the bridge.”

Newt’s finished unpacking everything and has started making dinner. Tina leans against a counter next to him and smiles softly at him, trying to get him to smile back. He does, but it’s weak.

“I didn’t mean to imply that we use Lizzie as a tool,” Theseus says, lowering himself into a chair.

“Do we really have to talk about this right now?” Newt asks. He puts his head down as he cooks.

Tina nods easily and gives Theseus a pointed look so he’ll drop the subject. “Why don’t you go upstairs and grab Phoenix?” Tina suggests to her brother-in-law.

* * *

Elizabeth likes spending time with Nagini. The older woman is kind, gentle, and supportive. Elizabeth absolutely adores her, but as is her problem with all people, Elizabeth sees the demons beneath. A dark foreboding cloud follows Nagini’s thoughts, threatening to overtake them at any moment. Sometimes, the cloud does catch up and during those times Nagini isolates herself completely. It’s a sadness that strikes Elizabeth to her core every time she looks too closely inside of Nagini’s head.

It’s confusing to know that the cloud is there but to also hear the surface level thoughts. On the surface, Nagini is happy. It confuses Elizabeth to no end.

“Why do bad things keep happenin’?” It’s the fundamental question to Elizabeth’s turmoil, the one thing she can’t collect from the thoughts of others.

“I don’t know,” Nagini says simply and honestly. “Because that’s just how it is sometimes. But there are people out there who love you, and sometimes you’re the person who’s out there loving someone who doesn’t know that they’re not alone. If you can’t hang on for yourself, hang on for them.”

Elizabeth doesn’t have a response to this, and she’s too shy to admit that maybe she’s not as emotionally mature as Nagini might think she is. Instead, she just nods and snuggles into Nagini’s side and lets the woman finishing reading the storybook.

* * *

“Tell me, Colin,” Dumbledore sits on the edge of Rutherford’s desk as the man comes into the room, “what have you noticed about the auror department?”

“Professor.” Rutherford almost drops his wand in shock. He came into the ministry early to snoop around and see what documents he could find laying around. Rutherford swallows the lump in his throat. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

Dumbledore nods easily. “You’ve been tasked to oversee the resources the aurors are using, I would like to know your findings.”

Rutherford awkwardly wipes his palms on his pants. “Nothing much sir, Scamander isn’t too fond of letting people know what he’s doing.”

“But surely you would know if he has a person or two to spare for some kind of mission?”

Rutherford shrugs. “I don’t know. Scamander sure knows a lot about everyone else though. That niece of his must be some sort of legilimens, he had her in his office and she said some things,” he grimaces, “that I wasn’t exactly eager for everyone to know.”

Dumbledore has a distant expression on his face. A frown nestles on his features. “It’s been good talking to you, Colin.” He says calmly as he gets off the corner of the desk.


	4. What's Good for Elizabeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt talk to Dumbledore, Elizabeth learns more about Queenie, and Theseus learns what Yusuf has been doing.

Taking a deep breath through her nose, Elizabeth focuses all of her thoughts inward on herself, trying to block out as many voices as possible. With her exhale, she pushes her own thoughts out in the void and imagines herself looking at the world from the view of the ceiling. She sees herself standing next to her mom as reporters crowd around the table her father is sitting at. Behind the reporters, there is a forming queue of people wanting their third edition of Fantastic Beasts signed.

Phoenix is asleep in their mother’s arms, his magic isn’t developed enough to hear the thoughts of others. Ever since that night almost a month ago, Elizabeth hasn’t felt Phoenix’s presence in her mind again. A part of her is wondering if she just imagined it.

Loose thoughts drift across Elizabeth’s conscious, most of them wondering when the line was going to start moving, or what their plans for after this signing are. It’s not anything particularly interesting, but then again when she does hear anything interesting she doesn’t know what it means half the time.

She takes another deep breath inwards and more forcefully imagines herself drifting above the bookshop.

* * *

“I wanna come with,” Elizabeth pleads, following Newt as he grabs his coat.

“Lizzie,” he says gently, kneeling down to her level, “I would love to take you to Hogsmeade someday, but right now I need to go alone.”

“I wanna see it though.” She bites her lip as Newt shakes his head. When she presses into his mind the only reasoning to why she can’t go with is simply because she’s herself.

Newt sighs, aware of what his surface thoughts are probably revealing to his daughter. He tucks a stand on hair behind her ear. “It’s more complicated than what you’re hearing.”

Elizabeth pouts, trying to give her father puppy dog eyes. She can tell almost instantly from his thoughts that it isn’t going to work. Her expression drops and she looks down at the floor. She grabs the fabric of her dress with her fists as she tries not to get frustrated.

Newt sighs sadly and kisses the top of her head before standing back up. “Be good for your mum okay? Help her take care of Phoenix?”

Elizabeth nods and hugs Newt’s legs. “You gotta promise I can go someday.”

“I promise.” He says sincerely. Elizabeth pulls herself away and watches him go.

* * *

“Newt! It’s good to see you!”

Newt half smiles as he lowers himself into the seat across from Dumbledore. The professor already ordered them butterbeer, and Newt’s grateful to have something to hold so he doesn't fidget with his hands.

“It’s good to see you too Professor.” He says honestly, enough though he has felt rather distant from the man lately. It’s a bit puzzling why Dumbledore would invite him to Scotland for lunch at the Three Broomsticks, but Newt decides to just go along with it.

“How are Tina and the kids?” Dumbledore asks easily.

“Good,” Newt says a bit tentatively. He trusts Dumbledore with his life, but that doesn’t mean he wants the man looking into his home life. Newt’s very much aware of how manipulative Dumbledore is. It wouldn’t surprise him if Dumbledore would think to use Elizabeth just as Theseus had. “Elizabeth’s four and a half now, and Phoenix turned one a few months ago. Tina’s working hard with the aurors. She told me to tell you hello.”

“Tell her I say hello as well.” Dumbledore drinks some of his butterbeer and Newt can’t help but think that’s weird that Dumbledore does something as average as drinking butterbeer. “Has your daughter produced any accidental magic yet?” Dumbledore asks, keeping his tone light.

Newt hesitates again. Elizabeth hasn’t done any of the classical early signs of magic like levitating objects or making small plants grow. However, her legilimency obviously makes her a witch. “Not yet, but we’re pretty sure that she’s not a squib.”

“One can never be too sure.” Dumbledore has a knowing look in his eye and it makes Newt uncomfortable. He wishes he made some excuse not to come today. Dumbledore had cornered him at the signing and it would have been rude not to accept in front of so many people.

“I heard a rumor recently,” Dumbledore continues as Newt takes a drink. “It was about your daughter, and to be quite frank, it surprised me.”

Newt sets his glass on the table and frowns. “What kind of rumor?”

Dumbledore decides to stop beating around the bush and gets right to it. “I heard that your daughter may have the same abilities as your sister-in-law. Is it true?”

“What Elizabeth can or cannot do is none of your business,” Newt makes eye contact with Dumbledore to drive home the point, but before he can even finish his sentence, he’s ducked his own head. After a moment Newt adds in a ‘sir’ to make the whole thing seem less defensive.

“I’m only interested in helping her learn to hone her abilities,” Dumbledore says calmly like he hasn’t noticed how defensive the younger man has gotten. “She has a very rare gift, and it would be best for her if she learns to control it.”

Newt bites on the corner of his lip as his fingers drum against his glass. “She’s only four, that’s too young to burden her with the responsibilities her magic brings.”

“If she doesn’t learn to properly manage her magic, she could bottle it in.” Dumbledore hums softly as if he’s just gotten an interesting thought. “This war is causing stress and we’d have to be blind to not notice that the next generation is watching us. Your daughter sees this war through Tina and Theseus, but she also hears the thoughts of every person she encounters. If she doesn’t learn to control her gifts, she could shut down from stress.”

Newt scrunches his eyebrows together. “Queenie, from what Tina has told me, didn’t get any formal training. It was a skill she independently honed.”

“And look where Queenie is now,” Dumbledore says gently, leaning in closer to Newt. “I want what is best for your daughter. Let me train her, I’ve been studying legilimency and occlumency for years now.”

“No.” Newt shakes his head and grips his glass tight. Pickett, who is hidden away in Newt’s pocket, can sense that Newt is getting angry. He pokes his head out of the pocket and gives Dumbledore his best glare. “Because you’re right, the war causes pain, stress, and confusion on every person she meets. Which is exactly why she doesn’t need to be a part of it. You’re going to teach her all these tricks, then you’re going to come to me and Tina and tell us that our daughter is our only chance to defeat Grindelwald. And I’m going to stop it before it even gets to that point because Elizabeth will never be part of the equation and that’s final.”

Newt pulls money out of his pants pockets and puts it on the table to pay for his own drink. As he starts to stand up, Dumbledore speaks.

“She isn’t one of your creatures. You can’t put her in that basement of yours or in that case. There is no safe place to release her into. She has the misfortune of being human. Your daughter is going to grow up in this society and she will one day understand that you kept her from her potential. Or you’re going to isolate her to the point of misery as keep her from the world she belongs in.” Dumbledore settles back in his seat. “It’s up to you, Newt.”

“Good day Professor,” Newt mumbles as he walks out of the Three Broomsticks.

* * *

Elizabeth sticks her finger through the bars of Phoenix’s crib and pokes her brother’s fist gently. Phoenix kicks his legs and grabs onto her finger. His face lights up as he looks at her. Phoenix babbles to her with no direction before she shushes him gently. “You’re ‘posed to be nappin’.”

Carefully, she focuses on looking into his mind. It’s from looking into his head that she understands the layers and complexities of emotion and thought. Phoenix’s mind is the only one that she can truly look into. It’s probably because he’s too little to have any kind of resemblance of mental shields. She treads carefully and listens for any type of reaction or familiarity. 

If she’s being completely honest, she’s raised her hopes high in wishing that her brother is like her. It’s lonely being able to read every one, but nobody being able to read her.

“Phoenix,” she whispers softly, “please just try to listen.” She pulls out of his mind and gently projects her thoughts toward him. Elizabeth closes her eyes as she focuses inward, looking for any sign that she’s not alone. Then, just as it had a month ago, Elizabeth feels a nudge. She can’t help but gasp aloud.

Phoenix whimpers softly and lets go of her finger. The foreign presence leaves her mind. Elizabeth beams at him.

* * *

“Mom?” Elizabeth climbs onto the couch next to Tina and rests against her side.

“What is it?” Tina asks, wrapping one arm around Elizabeth. Her other hand is holding the book she was reading.

“I have a secret,” Elizabeth confesses before frowning. “Really, Phoenix has a secret.”

“I’m sure whatever Phoenix is thinking isn’t dramatic enough to be a secret,” Tina says. She starts thinking about times when Queenie would rat out her thoughts to everyone around them. Quickly, she pushes it away before Elizabeth can latch onto them. She does, however, make a mental note to teach Elizabeth not to air her brother’s thoughts out loud.

“Phoenix is like me,” Elizabeth says casually, “I felt him in my head.”

Tina looks at her daughter and shakes her head. “Lizzie, as nice as that would be, Phoenix isn’t like you.”

Elizabeth scowls at her. “Yes, he is.” She bites at her lip and purposely scoots away from her mother. “‘Cause I tested it and he was lookin’ in my head. I felt it. It was just like when I look in your head, but it was opposite.” That’s not the correct way Elizabeth would describe the feeling, but she isn’t sure how else to do it.

Placing her hands on Elizabeth’s shoulders, Tina looks at her daughter. “I know it’s lonely sometimes. I know that you get frustrated, but even if Phoenix was somehow a legilimens, we wouldn’t know for another two years or so.”

Elizabeth shrugs Tina’s hands away. “I didn’t wake up bein’ a leg-” she stumbles over the word, “a legil-,” she shakes her head and tries again. “I could always read minds. I didn’t wake up one day and then I could do it.”

Tina sighs softly. “We didn’t know about you until you were three, that’s when your magic was able to handle that ability.”

Elizabeth keeps chewing at her lip. “When did Nana and Papa know ‘bout Queenie?”

Tina can almost feel her heart stop beating in her chest. Her book tumbles off the couch as she turns her entire body toward Elizabeth. “Why would you think she was like you?”

“I heard you talkin’ to Dad,” she says softly. “What happened to her?”

It’s been years leading up to this moment, but Tina still doesn’t feel prepared at all. This is too loaded of a question for a four-year-old to have to worry about. Tina pulls Elizabeth into her lap and holds onto her as she starts speaking. There’s no point in lying, Elizabeth would know.

“There was an incident in Paris where everyone was given a choice to join Grindelwald or not,” Tina’s voice shakes as she pushes the visual memory away. “Queenie chose to go with him.”

Elizabeth rests her head against Tina’s shoulder and pretends like she doesn’t notice her mother is crying. After all, she hates it when people point out that she’s crying. “Is she a bad guy?”

Tina opens her mouth to explain that, no, her sister isn’t a bad person, but it would only make Elizabeth more confused. Children are taught that it is either good and bad in the world, and that’s what comforts them. Explaining that the war is more complicated than that is a conversation that Tina wouldn’t even know where to begin with.

Elizabeth seems to gather gist the conflicting thoughts because she doesn’t ask again at her mom’s silence.

“Phoenix is like me,” Elizabeth mumbles, wrapping her arms around her mother. “I just know it.”

“Okay,” Tina whispers, resting her cheek on the top of Elizabeth’s head. There’s really no point in arguing about it if Elizabeth is so deadset.

* * *

Yusuf knocks on the door of the house and keeps his head tilted down. His hat covers most of his face and he’s under a heavy disillusion spell, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. When Theseus opens the door, Yusuf hurries inside.

The two men don’t share words as Yusuf flops down on a chair tiredly. Theseus pours them each a glass of firewhisky. 

“How are the French?” Theseus asks after a good half hour. His firewhisky is half empty, what’s left is swirling around in the glass as he moves his wrist.

“Fine, we’re fine,” Yusuf stares up at the ceiling. “It’s been tiresome.”

“It’s been tiresome here too,” Theseus says. “I feel as though we’re running fool’s errands without any real purpose.”

“Well, I can’t help you very much,” Yusuf throws his feet onto Theseus’s coffee table. “I’ve done as you suggested, my eyes and ears have been open to any passing mention of Grindelwald. There was a lead, for a while, it took me all the way to Germany. Turned out to be nothing though.”

“Nothing in what way?” Theseus summons his notebook and pen from the other room. “Tell me what happened.”

Yusuf sighs heavily. “There was this man, Hugo Campbell, he was a squib. He was British, maybe you knew of him?”

Theseus frowns, his pen tapping against the paper. “His body came from Germany a month ago.”

“Ah, so you have heard of him,” Yusuf takes a long drink. “Campbell comes up to me and tries to recruit me for this great cause. He saw me at rallies and assumed I had an interest deeper than curiosity. I agreed to follow him, but he claimed he had some sort of mission to accomplish first. He told me to wait for him and he’d come back to France for me.”

“A mission?” Theseus looks up from his writing.

“Yes, a mission, so I followed him. I have my suspicions that Grindelwald knew I was reporting back to you because Campbell lead me all through Europe with no purpose. When I realized what happened, Campbell turned up dead. So I’ve been waiting for it not to be suspicious before I turned up back here.”

“Merlin’s beard.”

* * *

"Did MACUSA ever take an interest in Queenie?” He hates having to ask Tina about it, but he honestly can’t sleep.

“No, not really,” Tina responds, sleep isn’t coming to her either. Her head is resting on Newt’s chest. His hand is on her lower back and she has her arms wrapped around his waist.

“Are we doing the right thing?” The hand that isn’t touching his wife is picking at the silk of his pajamas.

“Yes,” Tina doesn’t hesitate with her answer. “I won’t lose another member of this family, Newt.” She pulls away and props herself up. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

“I don’t know,” he whispers softly, his eyes diverting. “Are we putting her in a cage? I can get so protective of my creatures that sometimes I just,” he frowns. “I get blinded. What if keeping her safe is just damning her later?”

“Is this because of what Dumbledore said to you?” Tina asks, trying to catch his eyes again.

Newt turns his head away completely. “He said he could train her, Tina. What if that’s what’s best for her? Maybe it’ll be for Dumbledore’s political agenda, but maybe it’ll also be best for Elizabeth. We’ve been so focused on this being either or, but we never considered it being both.”

“I thought you’d be the one who was against this completely,” Tina says, snuggling back up against him.

“I thought I was too.” He turns his head back toward her.

“Lizzie’s so young, and Dumbledore is so manipulative.” She sighs. “If we found Credence right now, we wouldn’t use him as a tool.”

“You’re right.” Newt kisses the top of her head. “Absolutely right.”


	5. The Battle of Godric's Hollow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina, Theseus, and the other aurors arrive to stop Grindelwald from terrorizing the people of Godric's Hollow.
> 
> Newt and Tina make a decision regarding Elizabeth.

Dumbledore looks down at the leatherbound book in his hands. The cover is singed, but the pages are still protected. Inside is a manifesto that Dumbledore had once put his entire being behind. Although the words are almost completely burned off, Dumbledore remembers a time where ‘For the Greater Good’ was elegantly written. 

He shakes his head before he lets himself get consumed with ghosts from the past. He puts the book back into his desk and sighs heavily. Gellert is going to want the book back, Dumbledore muses, and he’s going to risk everything to get it. The manifesto is one thing, but nestled behind it are scraps of paper that Dumbledore had written all of Grindelwald’s visions on. Being a seer, Grindelwald wouldn’t realize what he had predicted unless Dumbledore had written it down.

As the war progresses, Dumbledore has a feeling that Grindelwald will come searching for the visions. As far as Grindelwald knows, it’s buried in the attic of Dumbledore’s childhood home.

A knock on the door startles him out of thought. He gives an encouraging smile to the student who comes in.

* * *

“Why does he keep trying to enforce this stakeout?” Tina asks, watching as her brother-in-law angry crumples up a letter from Professor Dumbledore.

“I don’t know.” Theseus isn’t satisfied until he sets the paper on fire. He watches it burn into nothing. Tiny little pieces of ash settle on his desk as Tina raises an eyebrow at him.

“He’s trying to convince Newt that he needs to train Elizabeth.” She crosses her arms and leans back in her seat.

“Probably went to Newt because he knew he’d have no luck with you,” Theseus says easily, swiping the mess of his desk with an easy flick of his wrist.

Tina hums her agreement. “Say what you will about Dumbledore, but he can be a smart man sometimes.”

“Just sometimes,” Theseus says, before frowning. “Do you and Newt have me on some sort of watch?”

“I have no idea why you’d say that,” Tina says, opening the sack Newt had packed for her. Inside is a homemade lunch, kept fresh and warm by stasis spells.

“Because my brother doesn’t love me enough to do this,” Theseus gestures to the identical sack that Tina had brought in for him.

“He does love you and he made too much food,” she takes a bite of her food, “so eat it, or I’ll give it to someone else.”

Theseus gives her a suspicious look, which she pays no mind to. “Are you buttering me up for something?”

Tina scoffs. “You don’t have anything that I want.”

He narrows his eyes at her. “Days off? Pay raise?”

Tina shrugs half-heartedly. “Newt and I have more than enough money, and I like being here.”

“You like it because you’re not in charge,” he says as he finally relents and opens his lunch.

“Ever since Kama went back to France, you’ve been more stressed than usual. Mind telling me why?” She catches his eyes and gives him an encouraging smile.

He sighs and looks down at his lunch. “Grindelwald is going back underground,” Tina already knows this, but he continues on anyway. He’s more so thinking aloud than anything. “We don’t have an exact location, his followers are blending in again, and the attacks are dwindling. Last time he went off the grid was in ‘26 and that obviously didn’t go well for us.”

“Maybe there’s something wrong internally,” Tina suggests. “One of Grindelwald’s people could be making things difficult.”

“I don’t like waiting,” Theseus frowns. “It’d be a long wait to see if that’s true.”

“You could always use the MACUSA approach and wipe your hands of the whole ordeal.”

Theseus grimaces. “The only good thing about MACUSA refusing to intervene is that I got you on my team.”

“You look enthusiastic,” Tina quips sarcastically.

Theseus laughs.

The two settle in silence as they eat their lunches. Outside of Theseus’s office, they hear the bustle of the other aurors, it’s a lot slower than it usually is.

* * *

Bathilda Bagshot walks between the houses at Godric’s Hollow. She breathes in the crisp winter air as she goes. The three Abbott siblings are constructing a snowman in the middle of the square as other families wander about. The holiday season just ended so some of the townsfolk are taking down the garland they hung from the streetlamps. Bathilda laughs to herself as some of the local muggle children try to start a snowball fight with each other. It’s times like these where she misses Gellert.

Gellert would always glare when she suggested going on walks, but there were a few times that he agreed to escort her through the village. His eyes would always light up if they Albus when they were out and about. A smile would cross his handsome features and stay there during the entire trip. Gellert didn’t stay in Godric’s Hollow long enough to observe the Christmas celebrations, but she’s sure he would’ve been delighted by the lights. He never would have admitted it though.

She sighs wistfully to herself before deciding to turn around and go back home. Behind her, one of the muggle boys screams. Before she can even react, a stunning spell hits her back and she falls forward.

* * *

Hanson bursts into Theseus’s office, his eyes wide, but his hand is steady on his wand. “Sir, there’s an active attack in Godric’s Hollow.”

No less than five minutes later, the twenty aurors on Theseus’s elite team apparate just outside the village. They’ve trained for this exact scenario. With one nod from Theseus, the aurors head out.

Tina leads the group she is in with four other aurors. They apparate to the south side of the village. Moving quickly, her eyes are trained forward while the rest of her group covers her from other directions. 

Spells light up the path ahead of them. Screams of the village inhabitants reach Tina’s ears as she tries to block them out. Taking a deep breath, she moves forward, eager to get to the middle of the square. They meet no resistance as they cover the south, the closer they get to the main square, the more Tina’s heart rate speeds up. There’s a collective shiver down the spines of every auror in their group as the anti-apparition spells from one of the other auror groups settles over the village.

Once they reach the square, Tina allows herself a moment to take in her surroundings. The snow in the square is melted from the intensity of the spells. Men and women in dark coats take a sick pleasure in cursing the locals. The civilians are surrounded around the fountain, the magic users of the group are all disarmed. From the east of the village comes the sounds of an entirely different fight.

Tina’s moment of observation passes and the aurors send their spells. People scream and duck as the battle in the square truly begins. Tina runs forward, her tunnel vision set on three of Grindelwald’s followers. Each of them has a wand raised to a child. She isn’t consciously aware of what spells she’s sending their way.

The tallest one of the group casts a shield over the six of them, but Tina cuts through it viciously. Staring at her with some of the bluest eyes she’s ever seen, the youngest of the children make eye contact with her. She sees nothing but fear in his eyes. Her wand is gripped tightly in her sweaty hand as she ducks below a killing curse. Once the curse sails over her head, she pops back up and weaves an intricate net of magic. Working quickly before they think to send another killing curse, Tina sends her spell forward. Two of the followers fall to her spell while the other one just barely casts a shield in time. 

He smirks at her, amused by her. Tina is enraged as she sees the oldest of the children gather her two younger siblings into her arms. She’s enraged that someone would pride themselves with hurting children. 

Tina raises her wand and connects spells with the follower. Powerful white magic sparks between them. It’s eerily reminiscent of the fight she had with Grindelwald in New York. While holding the spell, Tina looks to either side of her. On her left, Hanson struggles to defend a muggle family. Two of the other auror groups have arrived and their fight seems to be keeping the civilians out of harm's way. Luckily, they seem to outnumber Grindelwald’s men. To her right, an empty alleyway stretches out, leading to the west part of the village. Making her decision, Tina breaks the spell lock and throws it in the direction away from people. There’s a crumbling of bricks as it connects to a building. She throws a stunning spell the moment the lock is broken and takes down the man. Tina runs forward to the children and around her, the battle of the square ends in favor of the aurors.

* * *

Theseus is in a haze as he drops down to his knees. His ears are ringing so loud and persistently that he can’t make out what the other aurors are saying to him. Theseus takes as deep of a breath as possible as the world slows down around him. Spells are almost dangling in midair, and Theseus realizes absentmindedly that his knees haven’t even hit the ground yet. Joining the ringing, Theseus hears his heartbeat. It seems to be the only thing moving at the correct pace as it pounds relentlessly.

His mind is slowly coming back to him, and he uses this time to gather the pieces of the puzzle that lead him to this moment. Hanson had come into his office.  _ Why?  _ His mind prompts, moving him to the next conclusion. There was an ongoing attack on Godric’s Hollow.  _ That must be where you are.  _ Theseus becomes more aware of his surroundings, he recognizes the buildings around him.  _ How did you get to the village?  _ They had split off into teams. Each team was to cover a different cardinal direction as they headed toward the middle of the village.  _ What team were you on?  _ The east team. Their objective was to cover the east side of the village and create a barrier to disallow apperation so Grindelwald’s men couldn’t flee.  _ Why aren’t you in the village square?  _ Because they had run into a group of Grindelwald’s men ransacking two cottages.  _ How did it get so out of control? _ They had engaged in a heated battle and almost won when Grindelwald himself showed up and hit them by surprise.

In his mind’s eye, Theseus sees himself and the other aurors cast tight ropes around Grindelwald’s men. They’re about to portkey them back to the ministry and join the others in the square when a cutting curse slices Monroe’s back. The infamous Vinda Rosier stands on the other side of the curse with a satisfied smirk. Standing behind her are Abernathy and Grindelwald.  _ That wasn’t what threw you off guard.  _ His subconscious searches for the fourth person to arrive. With a startled realization, he realizes that he saw Queenie Goldstein.

_ “Don’t do this,” he had yelled to her over the hum of spells. “Come home, there isn’t a day that goes by where your sister doesn’t miss you. Jacob misses you too. They need you to come home.” _

Queenie had said something. He wasn’t sure what, but he knows that he threw him in enough of a loop that he didn’t block a curse sent his way.

His knees hit the harshness of the cobblestone as time catches back up to him. Snatching his wand from the ground next to him, Theseus quickly gets back up and tries not to wobble. Grindelwald and his inner circle seem to have abandoned the fight on the street to continue robbing the two cottages the original group was after.

“Sir? Are you okay?” Perkins rushes over and helps him stand.

Monroe is on the ground, blood has stopped coming out of his wound, so someone must have healed him.

“There was a fight,” Theseus mumbles, vaguely aware of spells flying while he was getting his bearings.

“They hit you, sir, then ran inside one of those houses. We were taking care of Monroe.”

The two other aurors in the group beside him, Perkins, and Monroe, are looking at the cottage suspiciously.

“Should we knock down the buildings?” Wesley asks, turning to Theseus for guidance. “They couldn’t apparate away.”

“Grindelwald has a portkey,” Theseus says. It’d be utterly moronic if he didn’t. He glances around their surroundings and realizes that there’s now a gentle quiet over the village. Whatever fight that had taken place at the square had ended. “Send a flare up. Alert the other groups to our position.”

Wesley nods and a moment later, red sparks light up the sky.

* * *

Tina sprints toward the flares, ten other aurors keeping pace as they hurry with her. They’ve already calmed the chaos taking place by the fountain and portkeyed the offenders away. Skidding around the corner, Tina sees Theseus. Her brother-in-law is bleeding from his temple, and he would surely be on the ground if Perkins wasn’t holding him up.

“Inside the cottages,” Wesley instructs. “Grindelwald and his inner circle. Be mindful, the legilimens is in there.”

Tina nods and starts up the steps when Hanson grabs onto her wrist. “You’re too involved. Make sure Scamander and Monroe get to St. Mungo's.”

“She’s my sister,” Tina hisses dangerously. “I can’t just stand by and let her get away.”

“Goldstein,” Theseus calls, his upright position getting more dependent on Perkins. He’s using his commanding voice. “She’s been reading your mind since the minute she was born. She can break through your occlumency shields. There’s information that she can’t have.”

“We’re wasting time,” Halloway says. Most of the aurors have already gone into the cottage Grindelwald went into.

Tina holds a hard stare with Theseus before coming down the steps and taking Theseus’s weight off of Perkins. The junior auror sprints in after Halloway and Hanson.

She helps Theseus over to Monroe and makes sure has a grip on both of them. Quietly, she whispers the spell to activate the portkey around her neck, her eyes staring at the cottage until it’s ripped from her view as they go hurtling away.

* * *

Dumbledore steps into the treatment room Theseus is in. “How are you feeling?” He asks, approaching the bed.

“Fine, they’re keeping me here just in case there was an underlying after effect of the spell,” Theseus responds. “You need to tell me what was at Godric’s Hollow.” He keeps Dumbledore’s gaze. “One of my aurors was hit by a killing curse, one of them was sliced through the back, and one more just barely escaped a building falling on him.”

“Yes, I heard there was damage to the village,” Dumbledore says, ignoring most of what Theseus had said. “Which house fell down?” He asks. “The one belonging to Ms. Bagshot, or the one next door?”

Theseus narrows his eyes. “The one next door. It was empty, luckily. It was practically blown up when my aurors confronted Grindelwald in the attic. Abernathy almost took the entire place down before another fight could start. They got away.” He sighs heavily. “Professor, I want to help you, but if you had only been more specific. Maybe we could have been ready for them. Or maybe if you told us the significance of those two houses?”

“Now is not a good time,” Dumbledore says, dismissing everything Theseus has to say. “Trust me Theseus, and this will end so much easier.”

* * *

“Are you okay?” Newt asks, climbing up the hill the mooncalves spend their time on. Tina shakes her head and absentmindedly pets a mooncalf snuggled up against her. Newt sits next to her and looks out over the expansive space inside of the suitcase.

“I asked Bunty to watch the kids, so we can just stay in here the entire night,” Newt offers, glancing at Tina out of the corner of his eye.

“That’s a good idea,” she whispers, her eyes looking to the ground.

Newt rubs in the inside of his pocket as he tries to think of what to do next. He’s drawing a blank.

“We should let Dumbledore train Elizabeth,” Tina says after a few minutes of silence. Newt wipes his head around to stare at her with wide eyes.

“What are you talking about?” He asks, confusion and shock clear in his voice.

“She’s vulnerable, Newt.” 

“She’s a child,” Newt scrunches his eyebrows together. “Where are you getting this idea?”

“It’s been a long day.” She nudges the mooncalf away so she can lay back in the grass and stare up at the artificial sky. 

Newt lays down next to her and fiddles with the inside of his pocket again. “Tina, I know you’re exhausted, but if you’re entertaining this idea, you need to tell me.”

Neither one of them looks at each other as they sink into silence again. Below them, the creatures in the case start quieting down as they go to sleep.

“We keep going back and forth on this,” Tina eventually says, her hand finding its way to Newt’s. “But I think I’m coming to a decision and I want to be on the same page as you.”

Newt turns to look at her, his hand squeezing hers gently. He examines her profile carefully, trying to determine how serious she is.

“There are so many reasons to keep her away from this conflict, but there are so many to let her get involved,” Tina says evenly, trying to gather her thoughts in the most communicative way. “There were children there in Godric’s Hollow. They were being surrounded by Grindelwald’s people and they were terrified. Across the square, their parents were there watching and they were horrified. There wasn’t anything the parents could do, but if one of the children knew the weak spot of the followers, then maybe they could have saved themselves.”

Newt shakes his head and interrupts her. “We’d be in the position of the parents, Tina. If there was any scenario where Elizabeth and Phoenix could possibly be in the hands of those people, we’d never let it happen.”

Tina sighs. “That’s the problem though, Newt. If we knew that we could keep them safe for a fact. A definitive, finalized, guaranteed fact, then I would never agree to have Lizzie involved, but we don’t have guarantees. This is war. You fought in one, you should know.”

This wasn’t the right thing to say because Newt pulls his hand away and turns his body away from her. “The war isn’t a place for children. I saw what happened to children if they were near the battlefield.”

Tina props herself up on her elbow to look at him. “I want our children to be safe,” she says gently. “But Elizabeth, and maybe Phoenix if Lizzie is right about him, are in an extremely vulnerable position. When I was about to go follow the other aurors in the cottage, Theseus told me to wait because Queenie could get past my mental defenses because she is accustomed to my mind. It made me think, Newt. Lizzie’s legilimency is the same as Queenie’s, which means that not only can Queenie read her mind perfectly, so can Grindelwald. And she’s so perceptive. There are so many things that she knows that she shouldn’t. It makes her a target anyway. If Dumbledore can train her to focus her legilimency more, maybe he can also train her to use occlumency.”

Newt begrudgingly rolls back onto his back to look up at her. “I just want to make the right decision. We keep changing our position to where I’m not sure what we should do.”

“I know,” Tina says softly, brushing back his hair so she can look at his eyes. “You’re worried, and I am too. If we don’t like what Dumbledore does, we can always call it quits.”

“So we’re doing this?” Newt asks, his eyes meeting hers again.

“I want to know what you think,” she says honestly.

“I think you make a lot of good points. But I don’t think we should use our daughter to be some sort of spy.”

Tina nods. “We’re on the same page then.”

He smiles up to her and she smiles back.


	6. Learning Legilimency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elizabeth embarks on her journey learning legilimency, and Queenie's experiences with legilimency are explored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Descriptions of a panic attack

Elizabeth’s eyes are wide as she holds her mother’s hand. Newt leads them through the Hogwarts halls. Both Tina and Elizabeth are in complete awe of the castle around them. Passing the portraits, Elizabeth frowns as the paintings talk and she cannot read their thoughts. Phoenix is sleeping peacefully in Newt’s arms, finally over the screaming fit he had when they apparated to Hogsmeade. 

“Is it nicer than Ilvermorny?” Newt asks, a smirk tugging at his face.

Tina playfully narrows her eyes at him. “Nothing is nicer than Ilvermorny.”

Elizabeth pays no mind to her parents and continues gaping at everything they pass. Looking up one of the staircases, Elizabeth sees Albus Dumbledore wearing a suit. His blue eyes are twinkling as the Scamander family walks up to meet him. Almost instantly, Elizabeth is entranced by this man. She’s seen him from a distance on a few occasions talking to her parents or her uncle, but she’s never directly met him. There’s a thick barrier between her and his thoughts which adds to the mystery of him.

Dumbledore kneels down to greet her at her level. “Hello, Miss Scamander.” He offers a hand for her to shake.

Elizabeth lets go of Tina’s hand and beams at the man. She’s pleased that he’s treating her like a grown up. “Hello Professor,” she says excitedly, shaking his hand.

“Let’s get started,” Dumbledore says as he stands up. “You have a lot to learn.”

Elizabeth nods, eager to delve deeper into her abilities.

“Lizzie,” Tina says tentatively, not wanting to burst Elizabeth’s enthusiasm, “if you end up not liking this in any way, we can stop.”

“You told me this already,” Elizabeth says, trying not to get frustrated.

“She’ll be in good hands,” Dumbledore says reassuringly, guiding Elizabeth down the corridor to an empty classroom. “Go out and enjoy Hogsmeade, or explore the castle. Everything will be fine.”

* * *

_ “Are you okay?” Tina’s head pops down and peers underneath the couch. “Why are you hiding?” _

_ Queenie shakes her head and squeezes her eyes shut, ignoring her sister’s gaze. “Go away.” Her head is pounding so dangerously, she feels like she’s going to die. _

_ Tina sits up and calls out. “Mom! Queenie’s crying under the couch!” _

_ Elisheba Goldstein comes into the room and joins Tina in kneeling by the couch. “Queenie?” Elisheba asks softly, noticing the tear stains on her daughter’s cheeks. “What’s wrong?” _

_ Queenie’s lips quiver as she draws her knees closer to her chest. She’s getting claustrophobic, but at the same time, she feels too exposed. The beating of her heart is so erratic in her chest that she has complete confidence that it will explode. “I can’t breathe,” she cries, repeating the statement almost as if it’s the only thing giving her stability. _

_ At her mother’s orders, Tina runs off to get their father. Elisheba pulls out her wand and levitates the couch up, moving it to the other side of the room. Now that nothing is between her and her daughter, Elisheba pulls Queenie into her arms. Casting a diagnostic charm, there appears to be no curse or sickness affecting her. Queenie is even more upset now that she’s in her mother’s arms, her tiny frame wrestles against the hold of her mother. _

_ “You can breathe,” Elisheba tries to reassure her. “Just calm down, everything is going to be okay. You’re okay Queenie.” _

_ “Then make it stop!” Queenie begs, feeling as though her entire life was imploding upon her. _

_ “Make what stop?” Elisheba asks worriedly, letting Queenie roll out her arms. _

_ “The voices.” _

* * *

“Before we start,” Dumbledore says, sitting on the edge of the professor’s desk, “I want to know how you use legilimency.”

Elizabeth shrugs, sitting on one of the student’s benches. “I just sorta do it.”

“How would you describe it? Try to be as specific as you can.”

“It’s like hearin’ someone talk out loud, but different,” Elizabeth frowns. “‘cept it’s not ‘cause I can hear a difference between talkin’ out loud and what they’re thinkin’.” Dumbledore urges her to continue speaking. “Kind of like how you can listen to music, but also talk to someone?” She stops swinging her feet as she thinks. “When people are hurtin’ the music gets louder, and if I’m hurtin’, it’s like the music is blastin’,” Elizabeth nods to herself, proud of coming up with this analogy, “and when there are lots of people, it’s like there’s a bunch of different songs playin’ at once.”

“So you can hear more than one person at a time?” Dumbledore asks curiously.

Elizabeth nods. “I hear everyone all at once. If I focus really, really, really, hard then I can turn down everyone’s voices ‘cept for just one, but I’m not good at that.”

“Can you look for specific information?” He asks.

Elizabeth shakes her head. “I can only hear what they’re thinkin’ right then and there. It used to be that I could only just know what they were feelin’, but I’ve gotten better at it.”

“Try to read what I’m thinking,” Dumbledore says, keeping his mental shields up.

Elizabeth doesn’t even attempt to break the barrier. “I can’t,” she says, “you’re pushin’ your thoughts too far.”

“I didn’t feel your attempt,” Dumbledore says, raising an eyebrow.

“Why would I want to force it?” She asks, tilting her head to the side.

* * *

_ The more she focused, the louder the voices around her would be. Alternatively, the more she spaced out, the quieter her mind would be. The other children who lived around them called her an airhead. Tina would defend her, but Queenie didn’t really care all that much. She would rather have them voice their bullying rather than be overwhelmed by the thoughts of their cruelty. _

_ By age eight, she could look around and hear other people’s minds as if they were her own.  _

_ “Stop doing that!” Tina snaps, dropping her pen and turning to glare at her sister.  _

_ Queenie frowns and lets herself drift off a bit. “What are you talking about?” _

_ “Can you at least be careful?” Tina asks, exasperated. “You’re like a bull in a china shop. You’re hurting me.” _

_ “You’re excited for Ilvermorny,” Queenie says, thinking that she can justify hurting Tina by listing off what she was thinking. “You’re making a list of things to pack.” _

_ “Queenie!” Tina gathers the list and unsuccessfully tries to push Queenie out of her head. There’s a firm nudge, but Queenie knows her sister’s mind well enough to not be bothered. _

_ “I’m excited for you to go to school and abandon me,” Queenie says, crossing her arms. “Why can’t you be excited about me getting better at legilimency?” _

_ “I’m not abandoning you,” Tina says, stiffly, shoving the papers into the drawer of her desk. _

_ Queenie observes her from the top bunk. The papers don’t fit into the desk nicely, but Tina doesn’t seem to care. “Please stop reading my mind,” Tina says softly, crawling onto the bottom bunk and out of Queenie’s eyesight. “I want to be alone in my head sometimes.” _

_ “You want to get away from me,” Queenie accuses, unintentionally focusing more on reality instead of daydreaming. _

_ Tina groans uncomfortably as Queenie’s presence dominates her mind again. “Aren’t people not supposed to know that you’re in their head?” _

_ “It’s not perfect yet,” Queenie grumbles, zoning out again. She stares aimlessly at the ceiling as Tina grabs a book from the end table.  Tina’s thoughts are a quiet hum, nothing that Queenie feels like listening to, so she ignores it as best she can. _

_ “Auntie Esther is coming,” she says after a few minutes of silence. She can hear her thoughts down the hall. A moment later, the door opens and their mom’s sister pokes her head in the door. _

_ “Dinner’s ready,” Esther says pleasantly. _

* * *

“Close your eyes and focus,” Dumbledore instructs.

“Why?” Elizabeth asks, peeking through one eye to watch Dumbledore pace.

“When teaching the art of legilimency and occlumency, the learner masters occlumency first.”

Elizabeth scowls. “That’s dumb.”

Dumbledore sighs softly. “Try it. You must learn it to understand how to better get around the shields of others.”

“Why don’t I learn my thing first, and then do the other thing?” She asks, opening her eyes completely. “My magic was made this way.”

Dumbledore shakes his head. He’s not used to teaching anyone younger than eleven and teaching a four-year-old is proving more difficult than he imagined. “Your legilimency is flawed without the use and understanding of Occlumency, it leaves you open for attack.”

“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asks curiously, a tiny bit of fear hiding behind the question as well. She doesn’t like the idea of an attack.

“Take a deep breath,” Dumbledore says, deciding to show her instead. “This will only take a second.”

Elizabeth takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

Dumbledore raises his wand and points it at Elizabeth’s head. “Legilimens.”

_ Elizabeth laughs as she stands on a rock and throws pellets out of the mooncalves. _

_ Phoenix giggles and kicks his legs as Elizabeth makes faces at him. _

_ Elizabeth leans into Tina’s side as she reads her a book to sleep. _

_ Newt lifts Elizabeth onto his lap so she can watch him write down his research. _

_ Elizabeth sits at the head of the table as a birthday cake is set down in front of her. Everyone she loves is sitting around her. _

Dumbledore pulls out of her mind, while Elizabeth’s lip quivers. “You need to learn Occlumency so that your mind cannot be looked into.”

“Is that what it feels like when I do it?” She asks, tears making their way down her cheeks. She’s always been in control of other people’s mind, but she’s never had anyone look into her own. She feels completely exposed and afraid.

“No,” Dumbledore says, feeling as though it was necessary to make Elizabeth upset to get her serious about training. “But that’s what others can do to you if you don’t learn.”

“I want to go home,” Elizabeth sobs, her shoulders shaking. “I don’t ever want to do this again.”

* * *

_ “You can’t just mind your own business, can you?” _

_ Queenie closes the curtains around her bed and buries her face in her pillow. _

_ “What happened?” Mary asks, raising her voice loud enough for Queenie to hear. _

_ “Goldstein was being snoopy,” Sarah responds. Even though Queenie can’t see them, she’s confident that they’re glaring at her. _

_ Queenie hadn’t done anything to invoke their wrath, Tina had drilled it into her mind that she shouldn’t announce other people’s thoughts out loud. Sarah’s upset because her boyfriend broke up with her, and now she’s accusing Queenie of listening to her heartbreak. It’s not like she can help it. _

_ “Goldstein is always snoopy,” Mary says to console her. _

_ Queenie muffles a sob into her pillow. The other girls absolutely hate her and the guys only like her because they think she’s attractive. Tina’s the only person who likes her for herself, but Queenie’s sure that’s only because Tina is her sister. _

_ “Are you going to cry?” Sarah asks, ripping open the curtains around Queenie’s bed. “Are you going to pretend to be the victim?”  _

_ “You think I want to hear your thoughts, Sarah?” Queenie snaps, sitting up to glare at the other girl. “You’re so dull and stupid that all of your thoughts barely scratch the surface of any intelligence. You are the dumbest, most selfish, most awful person I have ever met! If I could tune out your thoughts, I would. Believe me, I want to stop reading your mind just as much as you do.” _

_ Her rant has gone too far, Queenie realizes, as Sarah moves away from her bed with tears in her eyes. “You’re not even a person,” Sarah whispers. “You call me stupid, but you’ve never had a thought of your own. You think you’re so smart because you go into everyone else’s head and steal from them. You’re fake Queenie Goldstein, and that’s why nobody likes you.” _

* * *

Elizabeth rolls her shoulders before taking a deep breath. Her hair is tied tightly back into a ponytail and her clothes are pressed. It gives her a false feeling of confidence. She’s six years old now and still training with Dumbledore. No matter the numerous times she wanted to quit, she’s kept quiet and powered through. Even after two years, Elizabeth holds strong to the idea that Phoenix is like her, and if she can prevent him from having to go through this, then it’s worth it. It’s what her mother would have done, and it’s what Theseus would have done.

“I”m ready,” she says, closing her eyes as Dumbledore’s legilimency pushes against her occlumency shields. It’s only been in the past month that she’s started to be able to push back against him, but like always, he makes it through. Dumbledore never goes too deep into her thoughts, but he could be reading her at a surface level without her knowing it.

“That was good,” Dumbledore says approvingly. “You had the beginnings of a mental wall.”

Elizabeth crosses her arms against her chest. “I feel different,” she says softly. Every time she attempts to raise occlumency shields, it feels like every fiber of her magic protests against it. There’s a terrible disoriented feeling in her very soul everytime it happens. It’s why it’s taken her almost two years to even begin to start to be able to do it.

“Take a moment and we’ll try again,” Dumbledore says simply.

Elizabeth takes a shaky breath and tries to find her confidence again. “What’s wrong with me?” she asks. “You said that other witches and wizards catch on more quickly.”

Dumbledore looks at her carefully. Elizabeth gets into a habit of asking this question, and Dumbledore can never seem to give a response that satisfies her. “You’re still young,” he says, easily. “Your magic will develop more as you grow and Occlumency will become easier for you.”

Elizabeth closes her eyes and collects herself. “Okay, I’m ready again.”

* * *

_ “You could’ve been anything, so why the hell are you standing there doll?” Mr. Anderson puts out the cigarette he’s smoking into a floating ashtray right next to him. “You really wanna be a coffee girl?” _

_ “Yes sir,” Queenie says, she’s daydreaming so much, she’s hardly aware of what’s going on around her. She doesn’t like the vibe she’s getting from Anderson, so she’d rather just not be present. “I ain’t got anything better to do. My sister, Tina, she’s the career girl.” _

_ “You could be so useful,” Anderson says, shaking his head. “But here you are in front of me. Are you dumb, Goldstein? Too ditsy to pay attention? Too snatching of other people’s ideas?” _

_ “I ain’t saying that,” Queenie says softly, “I just want to do something simple. I have hobbies you see, but I have to help pay the rent.” _

* * *

Elizabeth curls up in the wicker basket holding the occamies. The creatures slither around on her legs, one attempting to loop itself around her torso. She attempts to meditate as Dumbledore taught her.

She visualizes her mind as a physical location. Dumbledore told her to pick somewhere safe, somewhere sturdy, and somewhere that represents the kind of magic that she aspires to replicate when she’s older. Dumbledore had explained how he visualized his mind around Hogwarts. Elizabeth thought of doing the same, but she decided that the basement was a much better place for her. It was home.

It feels redundant to pretend to be somewhere that she already is. Opening her eyes, Elizabeth focuses on watching the occamies until her magic starts to settle back into its natural feeling.

“Are you feeling okay?” Newt asks, kneeling in front of the basket to look at Elizabeth. She nods and moves an occamy off her shoulders.

“Does your magic ever feel different?” She asks. “Like on a really deep, deep, deep, level?” She doesn’t like to talk about her occlumency lessons, which is why she hasn’t asked her father this before.

“What kind of different?” Newt asks. His thoughts answer the question for her. He’s worried about what she’s talking about because deep-rooted magical changes usually stem from a traumatic experience.

Tears well in her eyes, as she looks away. “I don’t like occlumency,” she balls up her sleeve and wipes her eyes. “Legilimency is so easy and it feels right, but when I do occlumency, it hurts my soul. Dumbledore says that I need to learn occlumency before legilimency, but I’m getting so good at legilimency without his help at all.”

Newt gently moves the occamies off her before lifting her out of the basket. Once her feet hit the ground, she throws herself in her father’s arms and cries into his shirt. Even though he can’t read her mind, he seems to know exactly what she needs. He rubs her back slowly and thinks comforting things.

“You don’t need to do anything that you don’t want to do,” Newt tells her. “If you hate occlumency so much then we can stop taking you to lessons. It is completely up to you.”

Elizabeth sniffles as she stops crying. “What if I never learn how to not listen to people?”

Newt pulls back and rests his hands on her shoulders, urging her to look at him. “Any concerns that we have about you listening in on our thoughts have nothing to do with annoyance or anger. We’re worried that you’re being exposed to things that could potentially hurt you or worry you.”

“I want to keep trying,” she says because for some reason the idea of giving up is repulsive to her. “I just hate it.”

Newt sighs softly, hating that Elizabeth feels this way. “Do you want me or your mum to start watching your lessons?”

Elizabeth nods and wipes away the last of her tears. “Can we go pet the graphorns?

Standing up, Newt takes Elizabeth’s hand. “Of course we can.”

* * *

_ There was no other way to describe Jacob’s mind than perfect. Never before had Queenie believed in soulmates, but the second the sound of his thoughts passed by her, she knew he was the one. Everyone Queenie ever encountered had their own opinions on how her magic should be dealt with, or how she should behave, or what she could and couldn’t say. People always tried pushing her away. _

_ Jacob was different. He was an open book happy to be read, he praised the ground Queenie walked on, he was experiencing magic for the first time and Queenie got to be the one to show it to him. He thought she was beautiful, but he didn’t think she was easy. _

_ “You’re my lady,” Jacob says happily as he takes her hand. Queenie giggles and kisses his cheek as they walk down the street. _

_ “Just think about Jacob, you and me going on walks like this every few days, maybe pushing our little baby in a stroller with us,” Queenie smiles blissfully to herself as she daydreams, but snapping back to Jacob’s thoughts which seemed reluctant. _

_ “Do you not want that?” She asks, pulling him into a doorway so they can talk face to face without stopping the foot traffic. _

_ “‘Course I want that,” Jacob says soothingly. “But your magical government ain’t gonna let that happen. We have a good thing going on Queenie, we don’t need no official law stuff, I’m happy as things are.” _

_ “We could go to England,” she says softly, having already given this option to Jacob many times. “Newt wouldn’t mind if we stayed with him until we got on our feet. He’s our friend, he introduced us.” _

_ “Queenie,” Jacob sighs heavily, hating being in this position. “You have your sister here, you can’t just leave Tina, even if you two are fighting right now. Plus, we have the bakery to take care of, I can’t just leave it behind. Things are good, we don’t need to complicate it.” _

_ Queenie looks away, she needs to convince Jacob somehow that England is what’s best for them. She’s running out of time to do it. “Okay,” she says just to get them to start walking back to Jacob’s apartment, “we’ll wait.” _

* * *

Sitting in the middle of the empty classroom, Elizabeth tries to visualize the basement menagerie. A shuddering breath exhales from her lungs as her magic shifts within her. She can still hear her father’s thoughts as he sits on the opposite side of the room as Dumbledore. He’s reminiscing, and for a brief moment, she sees the room with all the furniture in it. Her father sits at a desk and scribbles a note on his pant leg, out of view of the professor, before discreetly handing it to the Slytherin girl sitting behind him.

Shaking her head, Elizabeth tries to push away those thoughts and tries to go inside of her own head again. Never before has she been using legilimency while trying to do occlumency. The lesson is even more difficult with his presence.

“I can’t do it,” Elizabeth eventually says, opening her eyes and look at Dumbledore. “It won’t work today.”

“You’ve never been able to not do it before,” Dumbledore says evenly, “don’t try to get it perfect, just try your best to project mental barriers.”

Elizabeth once again focuses inward, her father’s thoughts become louder and clearer the more internally she focuses. Her head pounds with an incoming headache and her magic churns inside her like waves before a storm. Still, Elizabeth presses on, the basement coming to view before her as the noise surrounds her.

Then, there’s nothing. She sits with her legs dangling off one of the staircases. Around her, she hears the creatures, but she can’t see them. There’s a calmness and the most secure silence Elizabeth has ever felt. Not a single passing thought of another person floats by her. Keeping the feeling and the vision in the back of her mind, Elizabeth opens her eyes to look at Dumbledore. The silence persists. 

Turning around to face her father, she can’t hear a single one of his thoughts. He almost doesn’t seem like a real person if she can’t hear him.

“Elizabeth?” Dumbledore says gently, “did it work?”

It’s not unusual for Elizabeth not to hear Dumbledore’s thoughts, he’s always using occlumency around her, but now that she can’t hear her father, she feels like Dumbledore got quieter too somehow.

The relief of silence soon becomes a terrible dread that she somehow lost her ability to use legilimency forever. Panic grips her heart as she feels the physical representation of her mind slip away. Her magic shifts back to its natural state and all at once she can hear her father’s thoughts again.

Elizabeth drops down to her knees, tears welling in her eyes. Newt hurries over and rubs her back while Dumbledore looks on thoughtfully.

* * *

_ Curled up in an armchair, Queenie stares out the window toward the snow-capped mountains. Aurelius sits in the corner, his back against a wall. The phoenix is perched on his knees, watching out for him like some sort of bodyguard. _

_ She can feel his emotions, but she can’t read his exact step by step thoughts, the obscurus inside of him acts as a foggy window between Queenie and Aurelius’s mind. _

_ It’s been a week since she crossed the fire and joined Grindelwald. It’s been the loneliest week of her life. As angry as she is at Jacob and Tina, she misses them more than she’s ever missed anyone or anything before. The sting of losing them hurts more than when her parents died. _

_ Despite the ache of missing them, Queenie knows she made the right decision. Her and Jacob’s child never would have been accepted in America, and Jacob was too stubborn to leave. Tina wouldn’t hide them and she’d probably disapprove of becoming an aunt because Queenie’s baby would be the child of a no-maj. _

_ Pulling her knees closer to her, Queenie convinces herself that she’s doing what’s best for her child. Maybe it was wrong to not tell Jacob or Tina that she’s pregnant, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. _

_ She hopes that her child is a legilimens like she is because just once, she wants someone to understand her. _


	7. Discovery of a Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grindelwald assigns an important mission to a dedicated follower, Yusuf and Bunty investigate a beast sighting, Newt finds a new creature, and Jacob and Tina have a disagreement.

Nathaniel’s fingers just barely brush the rough edges of the wand, but he can’t quite get it back into his grasp. He releases more air from his lungs as he tries to make his chest smaller. Using his elbows, he pushes his body more under the dresser. He’s only had his wand for an hour and he’s already made a fool of himself. Snatching the wand, Nathaniel wiggles his body backward to get free.

Once he’s standing, he examines the wand, paying special attention to the details. He’s held other people’s wand before, but this one feels alive in his hand. It’s his.

Unable to resist temptation, he attempts to spin the wand around his fingers. Just as it did before, it flies out of his hand and clatters onto the ground. Nathaniel thanks Merlin that it didn’t roll under the dresser again.

“You’re not supposed to use it like that,” Aurelius says, appearing his doorway. A fond smile is on his face.

“I know that,” Nathaniel responds, picking it up again. “I just want to look cool like you guys.”

“Have you ever seen anyone try to flip their wands like that before?”

Nathaniel cracks a smile. “You know how awesome it would be if Grindelwald did do that? He’d be unstoppable.”

Aurelius shrugs and looks uncomfortable as he usually does when Nathaniel makes some sort of reference to Grindelwald dueling someone. “What did you do when you got your first wand?” Nathaniel asks, treading back into safer territory.

“I shattered the window in the great room and blew a hole in the eastern mountains,” Aurelius nods his head out the door. “Grindelwald wants to talk to you.”

Nathaniel gapes at him. “Do you not realize how cool that is? Because I’m starting to think that you don’t.”

“Grindelwald,” Aurelius remind him before stepping out of the room.

Nathaniel nods and walks over to the mirror above his dresser. His blond hair is still neatly tucked back with gel and his uniform, a smaller version of the one the adults wear, is a bit wrinkled from crawling on the floor. Straightening it with his hands to the best of his ability, Nathaniel steps out into the hallway and makes his way to the great room. The long corridors of Nurmengard twist in complicated mazes around him, but Nathaniel maneuvers them with ease. He was born in this castle and he’s never left the grounds before.

Grindelwald sits at an armchair, beckoning him over from where Nathaniel stands in the doorway. Nathaniel sits across from him and makes sure his posture is straight. He’s always idolized the man and wants desperately to impress him.

“Did you enjoy your gift?” Grindelwald asks.

Nathaniel smiles gratefully. The wand was sitting on his end table when he woke up. “Yes sir, it’s perfect.”

“You will need to learn how to use it,” Grindelwald says easily. “I have seen visions of the powerful wizard you will become.”

“Will you train me?” Nathaniel scoots forward in his seat excitedly.

“I have bigger plans for you,” Grindelwald says, his voice portraying just how deep of a mission Nathaniel is about to embark on. The eleven-year-old shakes with anticipation in his seat. “I’m sending you to Hogwarts,” Grindelwald leans back in the seat as Nathaniel’s eyes widen.

“I thought Dumbledore was at Hogwarts,” he spits out Dumbledore’s name like it’s poison. “Why would I go there?”

“Because,” Grindelwald says soothingly. “You’re special. My followers can’t infiltrate the castle, but you can as a student.”

Nathaniel bites at his lip. “I don’t know what to do, or how to do it.” He doesn’t want to let Grindelwald down, but he also doesn’t have any experience.

“I’ve known you since you were a newborn,” Grindelwald stands up and Nathaniel does the same. They walk over to look out the window. Nathaniel takes a deep breath as he looks to the mountains to collect his thoughts. “While you were not gifted with your mother’s legilimency, you have been learning occlumency since you were a toddler. You are the only person for the job. Collect all that you can on Dumbledore’s inner workings and keep your shields up at all times. Do this,” Grindelwald places his hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder, “and you will be honored by wizards and witches alike when our cause promotes society.”

Nathaniel smiles with determination. “I’ll do it then.”

Grindelwald nods approvingly and starts explaining what he wants in more detail.

* * *

Phoenix stares at the wall, tears drying on his cheeks. His face is mushed against the pillow as his headache temporarily subsides. He moves his eyes to look over at Elizabeth who sits cross-legged in the middle of the room. Phoenix is currently laying on his sister’s bed as it’s in the furthermost room from the rest of the house.

That morning, while sitting at breakfast, an overwhelming sensation took over his magic and his mind as he felt the emotions of his parents and sister as if they were his own. The headache only got easier to manage when everyone left him alone. Elizabeth’s only there because her purposeful occlumency is enough to shield her thoughts from him picking them up.

“Stop hurting,” he says quietly, sniffling as he buries his face into the pillow.

“You get used to it,” Elizabeth mumbles, not entirely present in the room as she focuses on maintaining her mental landscape.

Phoenix whimpers and kicks his legs against the mattress.

Elizabeth frowns and breaks her concentration. She looks at him accusingly. Phoenix throws a pillow at her as her feelings cross his mind. “You’re starting to hurt me,” she snaps, throwing the pillow back at him as she reads his pain. Phoenix raises his head to glare at her, to which she glares back. The two siblings scowl at each other before they both look away and clutch their heads in pain. They had been snowballing the pain between them.

Elizabeth gets up from the floor and storms out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

“She was here last night,” a muggle woman sobs, holding onto her husband as they talk to the muggle police.

Yusuf listens in carefully as he stands with the concerned onlookers. Bunty stands uncomfortably beside him, she’s clearly upset listening to the mother cry for her daughter. Usually, Yusuf goes undercover alone, but reports of a beast disturbance require him to bring along someone with more expertise. If it were up to him, he would have taken Newt, but the man refuses to go out on missions assigned by Dumbledore or Theseus. Instead, he has Bunty, who almost fainted three nights previous when some muggle kids tried to rob them.

“It’s going to be difficult to know what creature it was without finding the,” Bunty leans to whisper this next to Yusuf’s ear, “without finding the, her, uh, the remains.”

Yusuf nods easily and leads the younger woman out of the crowd. “How good is your tracking?”

Bunty tentatively smiles. “Second best in the world.”

Walking up the hill overlooking the village, Yusuf leads them higher until they have a view of the muggle family’s backyard. 

The backyard is fenced and tidy. A small vegetable patch grows next to the house, and a wooden board on a rope swings innocently from the tree near the end of the fence. A gate opens up to the dense forest that encircles the town.

“Do you see anything in the yard?” Yusuf asks, bracing his feet on the ground as much as he can as he holds onto a tree to keep his balance. The hill is steep and forested, and Yusuf has no idea how Bunty stands so easily.

Bunty, now that she’s away from people, seems to be in her element. “The girl walked out the gate, we’ll start looking to the north.”

“How do we know she wasn’t taken?” Yusuf asks, letting Bunty lead them through the woods.

“I saw her footprints,” Bunty says easily, her eyes moving quickly as she silently and swiftly leads them along.

Reaching the gate, Bunty crouches down to examine the small footprints. Nodding to herself, she takes off again.

* * *

“Newt?” Jacob walks down the stairs and into the vast menagerie. “Buddy?”

“Over here!” Newt calls his voice carrying from a few habitats below. “Can you please grab the purple vial off the desk?”

Jacob goes down to the bottom of the basement and grabs the vial Newt requested. Ducking under an archway, Jacob enters into a habitat that was previously empty. Now, a mountainscape stretches out artificially as far as the eye can see. It reminds Jacob of when he was younger and his parents took him and his brother to the Appalachian Mountains.

Newt kneels next to a small creature with dark fur. It’s malnourished, weak, and if it wasn’t for the very small movement of its chest, Jacob would think that it was dead. Jacob hands Newt the vial before stepping back to give the other man space.

“He’s a wampus cat,” Newt explains, as always, finding it easier to work while he’s talking. Newt pops the cork off the bottle and delicately drops two drops of a clear liquid onto a whip wound the creature has against its back. The wound slowly starts to close as the animal groans in its unconscious state. “He was trafficked with his mother, but his mother died. I spent all day trying to convince the ministry to let me take care of them, but they said they had it handled.”

Jacob sighs. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he says, noticing that Newt’s getting more upset by the moment.

“They didn’t have it handled,” Newt continues, just needing to vent. “They only let me save this one after the mother was already dead, but I could have saved them both.”

“I’m sorry,” Jacob says sadly, having nothing else to say.

Newt shrugs and wipes away the tears welling in his eyes with the back of his hand. “Thank you for helping me,” Newt says, beckoning Jacob closer. “It’s going to be difficult taking care of him with Bunty gone.”

“It’s what friends are for,” Jacob picks up a warm washcloth out of the basin Newt has set up next to the beast. He carefully helps Newt sanitize the wounds.

“Where’s Tina?” Jacob asks once they’ve finished. Newt pets the top of the creature’s head to give it comfort.

Newt shrugs and slips his hand into his pocket. “Upstairs in our room. She’s been sick all week.”

“I can make her some of my grandma’s soup and bread. It ain’t magic, but it’s pretty close.”

Newt smiles at Jacob gratefully. “She’d like that. We could make a get together out of it. Of course, Yusuf and Bunty won’t be there, but we could invite over Nagini and Theseus.”

Jacob raises an eyebrow, it’s very rare that Newt actively invites people over, even if they are almost like family. “Is everything okay?”

“Tina’s working herself sick,” Newt explains. “It’s gotten to the point where pepper-up isn’t helping. She stayed up for three days straight last week and drank way more energy replenishing potions than any person should.”

“Is it about Queenie again?” Jacob asks quietly, knowing that Tina gets into these moods when something about Queenie is heard.

Newt rubs the inside of his pocket. “Maybe. She won’t talk about it until she feels like she’s onto something.”

“Do you think she’ll talk about it with me?” Jacob asks. “Since we both lost Queenie, you know?”

Newt gets up slowly, gently petting the top of the wampus’s head one more time. “You can try if you’d like to.”

* * *

Night falls in the forest as Bunty stops moving. Yusuf comes to a halt behind her, thanking every force that he knows for making the woman finally stop. Bunty hasn’t allowed him to apparate in fear that the crack of displaced air will spook whatever it is that they’re trying to find.

They set out into the woods just after dawn, and it wasn’t until noon that Bunty found prints belonging to the beast. Apparently, it was some sort of large canine creature. Now, as the sun sets, Bunty sighs in frustration. “It’s just gone.” She drops and leans back against the trunk of a tree.

Yusuf sits across from her and produces his wand. He quickly reinforces the warming charm in his coat before pointing his wand at Bunty and doing the same for her.

Bunty rests her head back against the bark and looks at the stars just barely peeking through the leaves.

“What do we know?” He asks her, feeling out of place now that he’s not dealing with people.

“Well,” Bunty says, “the girl’s missing and if it was a creature then she’s probably,” Bunty waves her hand to finish the statement. “The girl left her yard as a violation of her own free will, and at some point, she came into contact with a man, if the footprints that joined her are correct. They walked for miles, at some points the man carrying her, and then the beast must have attacked them. The man’s footprint stop, his clothes are found and bloodied, and the little girl is nowhere to be seen. Her footprints vanish after she attempts to cross a creek.”

“But the creek is clear and too shallow for her to have drowned in, and we found blood dripping down a trail before it went cold,” Yusuf says, supplying the rest. “So the question now is, where is the girl’s body?”

“And where is the beast?”

* * *

“Hi, Uncle Jake,” Phoenix stands outside of the basement door and smiles up at him.

“Hey, Nixon,” Jacob ruffles his hair affectionately. “How’s your head been lately?”

“Good! Lizzie told me to ‘gnore stuff,” Phoenix smiles wider and points to where one of his teeth is missing. “It fell out when I ated an apple.”

“Did the tooth fairy give you any money for it?” Jacob asks, walking with Phoenix up the stairs.

Phoenix nods enthusiastically. “Three knuts.”

Jacob, even after having wizarding currency explained to him many times, still is not entirely sure what that means. “What are you going to spend it on?”

Phoenix hums softly. “I dunno, the nifflers took ‘em anyway.”

Jacob nods to him. “I’m going to talk to your mom for a minute, okay? Why don’t you go play with your sister.”

“Lizzie’s stupid,” Phoenix informs him, but still runs off to go find her anyway.

Knocking on the door to Newt and Tina’s room, Jacob waits for a response. After a few moments, he hears Tina invite him inside.

Tina’s sitting on top of the blankets of the bed, files and newspaper clippings are spread out all around her. There are heavy black bags under her eyes and her usually short hair has gotten long enough to where Tina has crudely tied it out of her face. She’s sickly pale and looks exhausted.

“Newt really undersold how you’re feeling,” Jacob says delicately, closing the door behind him.

“Newt worries too much,” Tina says as she flips through the file closest to her. She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand and reluctantly looks away from her work to look at Jacob. “How are you?”

“Good, I was feeling a bit out of place earlier this week, but doing Newt a favor makes me feel more involved,” Jacob pulls the chair away from the vanity and sits down.

Tina frowns. “What did Newt need help with?”

“Taking care of the wampus cat, he said it’d be difficult without Bunty here to help.”

The frown on Tina’s face deepens. “Where’s Bunty?”

Jacob shakes his head at her. “You’re starting to slip, Tina. Maybe you should get some more rest?”

Tina scoffs at this suggestion. “Jacob, I appreciate your concern, but I have everything under control.”

“What would you do if you found her?” Jacob asks, cutting straight to the point. 

Tina tenses and looks down. “I don’t know,” she rubs her eyes again. “I was so close to her two years ago in Godric’s Hollow, but I didn’t know what I would do, so I didn’t do anything. What if I saw her and she didn’t come back? What if I had to duel her? What if she was wanting to come home, but I decided to take care of Theseus instead of my own sister?”

Jacob gets up and sits on the corner of the bed, he awkwardly puts his hand on Tina’s shoulder. Even though he’s known Tina for almost twelve years, he’s best friends with her husband, almost married her sister, and is godfather to one of her children, he still isn’t entirely sure how to act around her. 

“You can’t keep going on like this,” he says softly. “I’m not saying that you should give up on your sister, I know that if I could somehow bring my brother back I would do everything in my power to do it, but you can’t kill yourself at her expense. You have Newt and your children to think about. Plus this entire extended family who can hardly stand to see you do this to yourself.”

Tina scoots away from him. “Please leave me alone.”

“I’m just trying to help you,” he responds.

“I don’t need your help,” she says angrily. “You have closure with your brother, Newt and Theseus have each other, Yusuf wasn’t close to his sister. Everyone thinks they know what it’s like to feel this way but they don’t. None of you understand how much I miss her every day, how much of her I see in my children, how every important moment of my life should have had her standing by my side instead of only being present as a picture in a damn locket.”

It takes a lot to make Jacob angry, but Tina somehow manages to press every button he has. “You think I don’t know what it’s like?” He gets off the bed and turns away. He can’t even look at her. “I loved Queenie, I still love Queenie. I miss her every day too. I can see her in your children as well. But whenever I see your kids, I imagine what Queenie and I’s kids would have looked like, and what kind of parents we would be. I think of her every time I make strudel in the bakery, I think of her whenever someone puts on jazz music or wears something fancy. Sometimes I think I hear her voice, only to realize that I’m imagining it. I still find myself thinking in conversational tones as if she’s in the next room over listening.”

Tina draws her knees to her chest, too upset to say anything to Jacob’s rant.

Jacob sighs and blinks to get rid of the tears welling in his eyes. “Get some rest. You’re hurting yourself whether you want to admit it or not.”

With that, Jacob leaves the room. Tina pushes all of the files and newspaper clippings onto Newt’s side of the bed before laying down and letting herself cry as her exhaustion finally takes a hold of her.

* * *

 

“It’s going to be okay,” Yusuf says gently, taking Bunty by the shoulders and turning her away. The younger woman is completely in shock and doesn’t react to Yusuf at all. She stares blankly at the trees Yusuf steered her towards.

Pulling out his wand to feel safer, Yusuf inches closer to the bloodied remains of the girl. If it wasn’t for the one shoe and the bits of fabric, Yusuf wouldn’t even be able to identify the corpse as human. Blood soaks through the thick bottom of his boot, and Yusuf can feel himself about to vomit. It looks almost as if the girl was eaten alive, blood is splattered on all of the surrounding trees. He wonders if he should have Bunty look at the remains to see if she can identify the creature from its teeth, but he feels like that’s too cruel of a thing to put the woman through.

Yusuf tries his best to examine the girl so he can give an accurate description when Bunty comes back to him. After a minute, it all becomes too much, and he has to back away. Casting a cleaning charm on his boot, he takes Bunty by the elbow and takes her out of sight of the girl.

“We have to find the creature,” Bunty mumbles. “Before the townsfolk kill it and before it can kill the townsfolk.”

“What kind of creature are we looking for?” Yusuf asks.

“I don’t know,” Bunty crosses her arms tightly against her chest. “Why wasn’t there anything left of the man?”

Yusuf frowns. “We found his clothes, the beast probably killed him.”

Bunty shakes her head. “No, the girl is what happens when the beast attacks. There was nothing left of the man, no bones, minimal blood compared to the girl, and there was more of his clothes.”

“What happened to the man then? Did the beast carry him off somewhere?”

Bunty looks up at him, he can see the realization in her eyes. “It’s a werewolf. He must’ve been passing through on the full moon, found a girl in the woods, and taken her with him so she’d be ready when he has his transformation.”

“So the blood and the man’s clothes were from him turning into a werewolf?”

Bunty nods. “He transformed while the girl ran. She managed to take off for a while, but he eventually caught her. I wouldn’t be surprised if he chased her through the woods for the entire night as some form of play.”

“Is there some way that you know to track him or catch him?”

“It’s incredibly difficult to track a person when we don’t know anything about him. He’s probably long gone.”

Yusuf takes Bunty’s hand and apparates them back into the village. A loud crack sounds in the alleyway as the two head out onto the street and toward the local inn. “We’ll get some rest, then first thing tomorrow, we’ll go back and tell Theseus what we found.”

* * *

“Come on,” Newt coaxes anxiously, watching as the wampus cat sniffs the meat that Newt had laid out for it. Ever since it regained full consciousness, the wampus cat has been hostile to anyone coming close to it. To prevent upsetting it, Newt has started to put its medicine into the meat. Unfortunately, the wampus cat has been refusing to eat.

With a snort, the wampus uses its nose to push the meat down onto a lower level of the artificial cliffside.

Above him on the staircase, Newt can hear the children playing with the bowtruckles. Deciding that the wampus will eat when it has to, he jogs up the stairs to join them. Elizabeth hugs the tree and giggles as the bowtruckles climb onto her arms like they’re branches. Phoenix holds one of the smaller bowtruckles in his palms and watches it curiously as it eats a bug.

“Did he eat?” Tina asks, she sits on one of the steps and scoots over so Newt can sit next to her.

“No, but he’ll have to eventually.” Newt sits down and takes her hand easily as they watch their son and daughter. “I’m glad you’re starting to feel better.”

Tina sighs softly. “Theseus revoked my access to any records pertaining to Queenie. Which might be a good thing.” She rests her head on his shoulder. “I should apologize to Jacob.”

Newt rubs the inside of her palm with his thumb. “We can invite him over, along with everyone else.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Phoenix still doesn’t have much control over his headaches,” Tina says, watching as Phoenix lifts the bowtruckle up for Elizabeth to see.

“You’re right. I just thought it would be a good idea for you to spend time with everyone. We all love you and it’s hard for all of us to see you do that to yourself.”

Tina lifts her head off his shoulder and cups his cheek with her spare hand. “I love you too. I’m making an effort to try harder not to lose myself like that anymore. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I can’t help it,” Newt says softly, leaning in her touch.

“Worrying means you suffer twice,” she reminds him before kissing him gently.

* * *

Nathaniel scribbles in his notebook as he watches Aurelius’s phoenix out of the corner of his eyes. The sketch, which has now taken up more space than his astronomy notes, is not what Nathaniel hoped it would be, so he scratches it out with his quill. Sighing to himself, Nathaniel tries to pay attention again to the lecturer.

The previous ‘professor’, who in reality was one of Grindelwald’s followers, was sent out on a mission and never returned. The new woman drones on endlessly. Fellow children of Grindelwald’s most elite sit around him and Nathaniel can’t help but feel superior to them. While they’ll spend the rest of their childhoods being taught boring material and being useless to the cause, Nathaniel will get a more structured education and the glory of helping the cause.

A small feeling of dread fills his stomach at the thought. No matter how excited he is for September to come, he can’t shake the feeling he recieved when he told his mother about his mission. Nathaniel may not be a legilimens, but he knows his mother. When she heard he was going to Hogwarts, he joined the long list of people who would abandon her for their own ambitions in the war.

Focusing on the occlumency numerous followers had taught him, Nathaniel attempts to close off the feelings of guilt from his mind completely. After a moment, he picks up his quill and turns his attention back to the lesson.


	8. The Thought of You Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt and Bunty have difficult conversations in relation to tracking the werewolf.

Elizabeth sits in the occamy basket and feels herself relax in the silence of her own mind. The mental basement is empty of creatures, only a smell, and the familiar feeling of her father’s magic stick with Elizabeth as her occlumency is projected out into the real world. Her own thoughts drift slowly above her on the stairs, she’s not sure if she’s asleep or not as her deep meditation steadily maintains the environment.

A gentle knock sounds above her from the doorway leading into back up into the main portion of the house. Frowning, Elizabeth looks up but sees nothing other than the abstract notion that the doorway is there. All of her own thoughts are around her, so whoever is on the other side of the door must be trying to read her mind. Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth imagines the door staying shut, even as the knocking increases. After a few minutes, the knocking stops.

Opening her eyes, Elizabeth looks up at Dumbledore who’s smiling at her proudly. “You successfully kept out a moderate use of legilimency.”

Elizabeth grins at him. “Really? You didn’t see or hear anything?”

Dumbledore nods. “You have the skills you need to master Occlumency. Keep maintaining your mental shields and I have faith that eventually not even I could break through even when trying my hardest.” 

Elizabeth shakes with excitement, after two years of fundamentally altering her magic, she’s finally learned the skill. Dumbledore has nothing left to teach her other than helping her maintain the skills she already knows. “Does this mean you’ll teach me how to read minds better?”

“First, I’d like to see if it is at all possible to use both Legilimency and Occlumency at the same time. Thus far, no wizard is capable of it since both sets of magic require an utmost amount of focus. I believe that you may be able to though as Legilimency comes naturally to you.”

Elizabeth’s excitement fades a bit. “But sir, my magic shifts and changes. I can’t do them both.”

“Ah,” Dumbledore says gently, his blue eyes twinkling, “but I remember you telling me quite clearly that Occlumency was lost on you, and look how far you’ve come.”

* * *

The sand settles between Nathaniel's toes as he stares out into the sunset. The gentle sounds of the tide coming in represent his thoughts as he blocks out the world around him. He’s never seen the ocean before, he’s never felt the wind on his body save from the draft from open windows, he’s never felt sand between his toes, and he’s never felt anything warmer than the Austrian mountaintop. Yet, his mental landscape spreads before him as if it were real. Pieced together carefully from photographs, paintings, books, magazines, and stories from others, Nathaniel has created his happy place.

Ever since he was old enough to be aware that he was thinking, Grindelwald has been training him in Occlumency. What had started out as a still pond is now stretched into an ocean that Nathaniel knows goes far past the skyline. His mind is impenetrable as his young age allowed his magic to develop the skill quicker than someone older would. It’s been almost three years since his mother has read his mind without him letting her and it’s been four months since he’s succeeded in blocking out Grindelwald’s full force attack.

A small gathering of clouds emerges on the skyline and Nathaniel sighs. He pulls himself out of his head, still keeping the beach in the back of his mind. His mother stands above the chair he’s sitting in.

“What are you thinking about?” Queenie asks, pushing his hair back out of his eyes.

“Nothing really,” Nathaniel says softly. “I was just meditating.”

Queenie nods and sits across from him. “Did Grindelwald give you an alias for your mission?”

“Yes,” Nathaniel says. “I’m supposed to be a no-maj born from Germany whose family fled because there might be a war starting. My parents are alive but neglectful. That’s all of it.”

“Your accent is too varied to be German,” Queenie says honestly.

“I’m fluent though; in the language,” Nathaniel defends, as he always does when someone speaks against one of Grindelwald’s ideas.

“I know,” Queenie takes his hand gently. “I’m your mother, let me worry about you.”

Nathaniel’s shoulders drop. “I just want to do a good job. Everyone is always worried about me or thinking that I’m just some little kid. I’m more dedicated to this cause than anyone.”

Queenie scoots forward and pulls Nathaniel into her arms. “Nathan, nobody doubts your loyalty the cause.” When she’s heard the thoughts of others, she’s realized that they’re resentful toward Nathaniel because they think he’s a suck up. “If Grindelwald believes that this mission is for you, then you will do a good job. He would not give you this task if you weren’t ready.”

“You’re upset about it though,” he mumbles into her neck.

Queenie tenses before slowly starting to rub his back. “I’ll miss you. More than you could possibly imagine.”

Tears prickle in Nathaniel’s eyes. “I’ll miss you too.” He grabs on tightly to the back of her blouse.

* * *

Newt pulls his head out of the pensive and looks up at Bunty who watches him apprehensively.

“Was I right?” Bunty asks anxiously, shifting her weight between her feet. She and Yusuf had filled Newt in when they got back, but Bunty thought he should see the evidence before they cement the find as a werewolf.

“I think so,” Newt says as he corks the memory back in the vial. He hands it back to Bunty. “The werewolf is going to continue to hunt in Europe until we can identify who it is.”

“You want us to track the werewolf?” Bunty stares at him with wide eyes.

Newt packs the pensive back into the locked cabinet next to his desk. “You’ve tracked other equally dangerous creatures.”

“But the creatures are acting on instinct,” Bunty responds. “The werewolf is a person who’s going out of his way to harm and infect people around him. It’s like Grindelwald, going around and converting people to a cause that does nothing but make people suffer.”

“If we let this go, then so many more people could get infected. Lycromancy could very well be a virus that sweeps through the continent. Especially if there will be another war,” Newt turns to face her. “I’ll go with you.”

“What about Tina, Lizzie, and Phoenix?” Bunty asks. “We can’t take them with us when we go.”

“I’ll talk to Tina about it,” Newt rubs the inside of his pocket. “Don’t mention anything about this around Theseus, I don’t want the ministry to get involved.”

* * *

Nagini coils in the corner as a visitor enters her apartment. She’s been staying with Bunty ever since those events in Paris, at first it was a bit awkward, but now after all these years, Nagini has found a home with Bunty that she’s never had with anyone else. Nagini wills herself to transform back into its human shape, but she finds herself unable to. This has been happening for a while, and fear constantly looms over her that every transformation could be her last one as she finally gets imprisoned in her body. Bunty, who is an absolute saint, has been very careful not to startle her into a transformation.

Slithering out of the corner, Nagini stays under the furniture so she can see who is there. A pair of black boots settle on the living room rug.

“Nagini, are you here?” Immediately, Nagini recognizes the voice as Yusuf’s. She moves out from under the couch to show that she’s home.

Yusuf looks down at her and sighs. “I’m sorry if my abrupt visit startled you.” He settles down in an armchair as Nagini slithers into her room.

Once she’s alone, Nagini works on using her magic to adjust her body. She knows that it’s still possible because her human mind is still with her. It takes about five minutes before she’s back into her correct body.

Yusuf looks up at her as she walks back into the living room. “I have a question for you, it’s a personal one, so it may stress you out. Do you think it will be okay to ask?”

Nagini crosses her arms across her chest protectively. “You’ve never asked me a personal question before.”

“I know that,” Yusuf says, “but I feel as though this is of the utmost importance. I figured I should ask you instead of having Bunty ask you.”

Nagini frowns and leans against the doorframe. “Bunty can ask me anything.”

“She didn’t want to put any sort of pressure on you,” Yusuf says gently.

Nagini shakes her head. “Just ask, Yusuf. It’ll worry me more if you didn’t.”

“When you transform, do you keep your mind to its fullest?” He asks. “Are you still able to exercise control over your actions and instincts?”

Nagini takes a deep breath, knowing the answer she gives now may not be the answer in the future. “Yes, I know what I’m doing when I transform. Sometimes I’ll want to bite people,” she looks at him nervously, but he doesn’t seem worried that she’ll hurt him, “but I never do.”

“We think that being a maledictus is the same condition as being a werewolf. The differences being in the end result of the transformation and the way in which the disease is contracted.”

Nagini nods, feeling great sympathy for the werewolf as they have a similar beast inside of them. 

“It is the current belief that werewolves, similar to you, have high control when under their transformation, but then they willingly choose to let the monster take over.”

“I don’t know why anyone would want to do that,” Nagini responds.

“Neither do Bunty, Newt, or I,” Yusuf says. “Yet, that seems to be what’s happening. It’s at the point where the werewolf willingly harms someone that they become a monster.”

Nagini sighs heavily. “I think you’re jumping to conclusions.”

“It’s not my opinion completely,” Yusuf interjects. “I’m merely repeating what Newt and Bunty of speculated.”

“Well, then Newt and Bunty are jumping to conclusions,” she says passionately. “None of you understand what it’s like to live your life in complete fear of yourself and what you will become. Nobody just gives in as simple as that.”

Yusuf rubs his arm before standing. “I should go, I wouldn’t want to stress you out any more than I already have.”

Nagini watches him go before curling up on the couch. She holds one of the throw pillows close as she tries to ground herself in her human shape. Credence, she remembers, was always terrified of his obscurus taking over and hurting those around him. Even though their conditions were opposite, one hurting the host and other defending, he understood her better than anyone else ever had. After twelve years, Nagini still painfully misses her first friend.

* * *

Elizabeth sits across from her scowling brother. “You have to work with me,” she tells him. “Not complain.”

Phoenix glares at her and crosses his arms. “No.”

“Stop it,” Elizabeth chastises him. “Dumbledore gave me this to work on, don’t you want to help Dumbledore?”

Phoenix gives a half-hearted shrug. “I dunno.”

“You’re the worst,” Elizabeth responds, dropping her Occlumency so she can read Phoenix’s thoughts.

Now that Phoenix is starting to understand surface level thoughts, she can read her own thoughts through Phoenix’s mind. It’s a disjointing experience that makes Elizabeth feel like she’s looking at her own mind through some sort of funhouse mirror. Trying to push that aside, Elizabeth looks for the specific reason why he won’t help her. She isn’t as good as finding specific things and Phoenix doesn’t seem to have deeper reasoning than him just wanting to be stubborn.

“Can’t you just be grateful? I’m giving you head start. I had to wait until I was four until I could train, but I’m going to teach you and you’re only three.”

Phoenix shakes his head. “Don’t wanna learn. It’s dumb. You’re dumb.”

“You’re stupid,” she bites back. “I’m going to be a more powerful witch than you.”

“Are not!” Phoenix yells. “I’m gonna be like Merlin.”

“Merlin had to learn,” Elizabeth throws back up her mental shields as Phoenix’s restless state intensifies the connection between them. “Come on Giddy, just try it.”

“Not Giddy, it’s Phoenix,” he pushes to find her mental state, but he doesn’t have enough of a presence to make any sort of dent on his sister’s shields.

“Phoenix is too cool of a name for someone who doesn’t want to learn how to use Legilimency. You’re just Gideon.”

Phoenix glares at her and kicks her leg. “Mom!” he calls out. “Bet’s being mean!”

“I’m not being mean to you,” she reaches forward and covers his mouth. “Stop yelling.”

Under her palm, Phoenix keeps calling out for their mother.

“Keeping screaming and I’ll tell Mom that you kicked me.”

Reluctantly, Phoenix stops yelling. “Mom likes me more,” he says the moment Elizabeth moves her hand away.

“Well, Dad likes me more,” Elizabeth says easily.

“He does not!”

Completely giving up on being productive with her brother, Elizabeth scoffs and gets up. “You’re wrong.” Before Phoenix can respond, she leaves the room.

* * *

“I need to talk to you about something,” Newt shifts his weight on his feet as he stands in the living room.

“What’s wrong?” Tina asks as she absentmindedly pets one the nifflers. The radio in the room plays some muggle program.

“Well, it’s complicated and I don’t want you to be upset, but I think that it’s important. Obviously, it’s important, because otherwise, I wouldn’t bring it up to you right now,” Newt tugs at the inside of his pocket as he rambles.

“Newt,” Tina coaxes gently. “Come sit down and we’ll talk about it.”

Newt settles down on the couch next to her and the niffler eagerly moves from Tina’s lap to his. Tina turns her body towards him. “What’s on your mind?”

“Bunty and Yusuf were in Central Europe a while ago and,” Newt stops talking as Tina frowns. “Tina?”

“They haven’t reported to Theseus and he’s getting paranoid about it,” Tina explains. “He asked me to ask them about what they found, but I don’t know how to approach them about it exactly. It’d be a lot easier if they weren’t almost like family.”

“That’s the thing though,” Newt says anxiously. “Bunty and Yusuf told me, but I specifically asked them not to tell Theseus.”

“Why would you do that?” Tina asks. “He’s driving himself crazy.”

“Tina, I don’t want you to tell Theseus either. It’s important.”

Tina shakes her head. “Newt, he’s my boss and a fellow auror. I can’t just lie to him. If it’s important enough to hide, it’s probably something that he needs to know. He’s your brother. You can tell him things.”

“Maybe I can tell Theseus,” Newt relents, “but I don’t want the ministry getting involved.”

“You can’t tell Theseus because he works for the ministry, but you can tell me even though I also work for the ministry?”

Newt makes a soft noise in frustration. “I’m not telling you because you’re an auror, I’m telling you because you’re my wife and it’ll affect both of us and both of the children.”

“Why does it involve Lizzie and Phoenix?” Tina moves her head so she can look Newt in the eyes, but Newt looks away almost immediately.

“Bunty identified a werewolf moving around Central Europe who’s been attacking every month consistently. He’s mostly targeting muggles and a majority of his victims have been children. If the ministry knows about it, the chances of the werewolf being tipped off about our search for him increases. We have to find him before he can infect more people.”

“You keep saying we, who’s we?” Tina asks.

“Me and Bunty,” Newt confesses softly. “I suggested that we go out and we track the werewolf to the best of our ability before it becomes an epidemic.”

“Absolutely not,” Tina says, her voice dangerously low. “You are not going off to track a person who can give you a disease that will ruin your life. You could get killed, Newt! Not only that, there’s another war on the horizon and I may be selfish, but I don’t want my husband anywhere near there.”

“Tina,” Newt says softly, only to be interrupted.

“What about Elizabeth and Phoenix? You could be gone for months at a time. Do you really want to be separated from them? I can’t keep secrets from Lizzie, she’ll know why you’re gone. You’re not going.”

“I have to go,” Newt insists. “There are only two people who can do this, and I’m one of them. I’ve tracked more dangerous creatures before and I’ve turned out fine every time. My own father spent much of his time traveling internationally for his job and I don’t have any resentment.”

“Don’t you lie to me, Mr. Scamander,” Tina hisses as she levels him with a hard glare. “You are an expert at tracking creatures, but this creature is more man than beast. There are other people who can track him. You’ve been bitten by just about every creature in the basement and in the case, the only difference is that they haven’t given you a life-altering disease. And don’t you dare tell me for a second that you don’t resent your father. Neither you or Theseus can talk about him without scowling. You’re not going and that’s final.” Tina scoops the niffler out of Newt’s lap. “I’m putting her down in the basement, then I’m going to bed. I’ll see you upstairs.”

Newt scowls at her back as she goes downstairs.

* * *

Bunty lets out a heavy sigh as she hands her coat up. It’s been about a week since she and Newt talked about tracking the werewolf and Bunty still isn’t sure how to bring it up to Nagini. The other woman sits on the couch and looks at Bunty expectantly.

“I didn’t bring dinner,” Bunty says, unsure why Nagini’s looking at her like that. “I can run out and get some though.”

“Not bringing dinner is certainly not the worst thing you’ve done this week,” Nagini responds tiredly.

Bunty walks over to the couch and kneels down in front of Nagini. She gently takes the other woman’s hands into her calloused ones. “Tell me why you’ve been so upset lately.”

“I’m not upset,” Nagini moves her hand out of Bunty’s grasp and tucks the other woman’s hair behind her ear. “I don’t know what I’m feeling, honestly.”

Bunty shifts uncomfortably. “You can try to talk it out. I’m not the best at emotions but I can listen.”

“I know you can listen, Love,” Nagini sighs. “Yusuf asked me something a few days ago and you haven’t talked about it with me.”

Frowning, Bunty tilts her head at Nagini. “I can’t talk about it if I don’t know what Yusuf asked you.”

“It was something about werewolves,” Nagini says. “He asked me if it’s similar to my condition.”

Bunty tenses. “I told him not to ask you.”

“Did you think I couldn't handle it?” Nagini asks.

“Maybe a bit,” Bunty confesses. “I know that you have your consciousness when you’re not yourself, but I know that it’s getting more difficult for you. I didn’t want Yusuf to upset you and startle you to a place you couldn’t come back from.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Nagini says softly.

“I can’t help it,” Bunty lets go of Nagini’s hand and rests her head in the other woman’s lap. Nagini runs both of her hands through Bunty’s hair.

“You and Newt probably want to go catch this werewolf,” Nagini guesses. She pauses as Bunty nods her head. “But you’re worried because you’re scared that you’ll come back and I won’t be the same when you do.” Bunty nods again.

“The last thing I want is for you to put your life on hold,” Nagini tells her. “You should live your life to the fullest without me weighing you down.”

Bunty lifts her head off of Nagini’s lap. “You’ve made my life better than I ever could have imagined. You’re not weighing me down.”

“We’re both waiting,” Nagini says. “Waiting for the curse to set in fully. We can’t sleep in the same bed anymore because I’m too scared of losing myself in my sleep. Maybe you should go with Newt now. I can say the last goodbye to you with my full mind and you can have a positive memory of me.”

“No!” Bunty says, raising her head to look at Nagini with wide eyes. “I’m not leaving you! I love you.” Tears glisten in Bunty’s eyes. “This is the one thing you can’t ask me to do.”

Nagini kisses her cheek. “I’m asking because I need you to go. I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want you to keep me as some sort of a pet after I’m gone. It’s best if I do this alone. My grandmother did it, my mother did it, and now it’s my turn.”

“We’re not done talking about this,” Bunty says tearfully. She’s too emotional to speak so she gathers Nagini into her strong arms. Nagini holds her back and focuses on staying in her human form.

* * *

Elizabeth sits on the stairs in the real basement. She dangles her feet under the railing and watches her father take care of the wampus cat a floor below her. She filters through his thoughts, trying to find why things have been tense between her parents lately.

“Nagini keeps her mind when she transforms, but how do you know the werewolf does too?” She asks out loud, not find the answer after her gentle probe of his mind.

“Well,” Newt pauses to gather his thoughts. He explains it out loud instead of letting Elizabeth wander in his mind because he and Tina are trying to teach her to be more conversational. “Nagini tells us that she has her mind because if she bit us, we wouldn’t become like her. Werewolves lie so they won’t be accountable if they pass on the disease.”

Elizabeth frowns. “That’s how we know Nagini’s not lying?”

Newt turns and around and looks up at her. “Yes, do you think Nagini is lying?” He asks.

“No,” Elizabeth shakes her head. “We know Nagini isn’t lying because I can read her mind.”

“While she’s transformed?” Newt sets down the pail with the wampus’s dinner.

“Uh-huh,” Elizabeth swings her feet with a smirk. “‘Cause I’ve been practicing.”

“Tell me how it works,” He jogs up the steps and sits down next to her.

“Well,” Elizabeth starts, never passing up an opportunity to brag, “I can’t read the mind of any of the creatures, except Gamma.”

“Who’s-” Newt starts before deciding just to let Elizabeth continue on her current story.

“All the creatures have this fog around their minds, I know that they’re thinking things, it’s like a hum, but I can’t understand it. It’s really easy to ignore, unlike people. Whenever Nagini is a snake, I couldn’t read her mind ‘cause of the fog, but I started looking into the fog for stuff that reminds me of Nagini and then I could just see through it. It’s hard to explain.”

“Wow,” Newt says, looking around at all the creatures, imagining what Elizabeth must be experiencing.

“If I come with you I can try to read the werewolf’s mind to find out if all werewolves are liars,” she says confidently.

“Absolutely not! There is no scenario where you’re going anywhere you could get hurt.”

“But I can do it,” Elizabeth insists. “Dumbledore said I have talent and he said I’ve pretty much mastered Occlumency and Legilimency is so easy.”

“You’re not going,” Newt says, taking her hand. “I’m your father, and I would rather die than let anything happen to you or your brother. I love you so much and I wouldn’t be able to live without you.” He sighs. “Which one of the creatures did you name Gamma?”

Elizabeth glares at him before realizing that he’s not going to fold. “He’s Gamma,” she points down at the wampus cat who watches them lazily. “He’s a legilimens like me.”

“Wampus cats have legilimency, I never realized that human and wampus legilimency were compatible.”

“It’s not interesting stuff,” Elizabeth explains. “Just his instincts and feelings. I think he can tell my instincts and feelings too.”

“What’s he thinking?” Newt asks curiously.

“It’s impolite to say people’s feelings,” Elizabeth responds in a singsong voice.

Newt nudges his shoulder against hers and smiles at her fondly.

Elizabeth smiles back at him. “He thinks you’re nice, but you’re not his momma, but you’ll do.”

Newt nods to himself. “I’ll take it.”

* * *

“Tina, you’re here because you’re the person I trust the most in this world.”

Tina smiles despite herself. “I’m honored that you think that.”

“I know it,” Theseus tell her. “Which is why I’m telling you something that I don’t want getting out to anyone. Not even Newt.”

“That won’t work,” Tina says. “Lizzie and Phoenix can read minds Theseus, no secret will be sacred for too long.”

“I’m asking for you to capsulate the memories, take them out of your mind completely and only have them when we’re brainstorming,” Theseus says as he taps his quill against his desk. “I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.”

“Capsulation is dangerous, if those memories get stolen then they’re gone.”

“It’s a risk we have to take,” Theseus looks at her seriously. “Do you agree?”

Tina sighs, knowing Theseus would only ask this if it was important. “Alright, I agree.”

“I think Yusuf is up to something behind my back. I can’t think of anything that he wouldn’t tell me or you, and I’m scared that the only conclusion I can think of is treason.”

Tina looks at him with wide eyes. She either betrays Theseus and the ministry, or she betrays Bunty and Newt. On one side, she damns Yusuf, on the other she damns her marriage.

“Don’t you think you’re being just a little bit paranoid?” Tina asks, trying to get him to drop it completely. “I certainly got paranoid every time someone mentioned Queenie, and we learned that it was best for me just not to focus at her at all.”

“He’s keeping someone’s secret,” Theseus says angrily. “I’m no legilimens, but I know when Yusuf is keeping secrets for someone. He used to do that for me, and now he might have switched sides.”

“Mercy Lewis,” Tina says under her breath. Her entire life, she has placed her faith in the justice system and pledged her life to uphold the rules. While she occasionally looks the other way for her wayward husband, she isn’t going to do it at the expense of her brother-in-law’s sanity or Yusuf’s goodwill. Newt wants to run a fool’s errand anyway and she doesn’t want him to go. “Yusuf’s keeping Newt’s secret,” Tina says, ignoring the sinking feeling in her gut as she speaks. It’s almost like New York all over again and she’s holding Newt’s case in front of all of MACUSA. “Talk to your brother.”


	9. Diverting Expectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathaniel, Elizabeth, Newt, and Tina realize that not everything is going the way that they expected it would.

Nathaniel holds onto the trunk of a tree as a storm rages on the beach. Dark clouds have invaded the once clear skies and have brought with them winds and rain. The wind pushes against Nathaniel from almost all angles, it’s taking all of his strength not to get blown into the unforgiving ocean. The rain soaks through his skin, the wind making the rain painful in its intensity. He wants to scream out and beg for this to stop, but his jaw is clenched as he turns his attention to keeping his hold. Sand on the beach is being blown away, other trees are falling, and the ocean beats down on the shore dangerously.

Rage fills Nathaniel’s body as the beach falls apart around him. He clenches his jaw as he screams, trying to will back the vision of the beach that he holds in his mind. Nathaniel imagines his own winds, pushing away the foreign ones, he imagines the ocean being pushed back into the calm state, he imagines the rain being sucked back into the clouds, and he imagines the cloud floating off into the horizon and away from his beach.

It takes will, but eventually, the storm vanishes. Nathaniel lets go the tree and looks at the ruined wasteland of his island. Taking a deep breath, Nathaniel’s magic stems out from his person and brings the sand back to the shore and raises the trees that had fallen from the ground. Looking out at the horizon, Nathaniel sees the sun is starting to rise. It’s time to wake up.

Opening his eyes, Nathaniel finds himself laying in his bed. Grindelwald sits in a chair on the opposite side of the room, he looks at Nathaniel proudly. “Even in your sleep, you are able to fend off a full force attack.”

Nathaniel grins and wipes some of the sweat off his face with the blanket. “It’s all thanks to your teaching.”

“Dumbledore won’t know what he’s up against. You may be close to his equal.”

Nathaniel sits up and straightens his posture. “I won’t let you down. I’ll find this journal and bring it to you, Dumbledore will be none the wiser.”

“It’s best not to say these things out loud,” Grindelwald says, standing from his chair. “Get dressed and ready for your lessons, I don’t want you having to waste time at Hogwarts studying.”

Nathaniel nods and watches as Grindelwald leaves his room.

* * *

Elizabeth shifts her weight and chews on her lip as she stands before Professor Dippet. Instead of starting their lesson normally, Dumbledore has taken her before the headmaster. Elizabeth’s never met him directly, but she knows that her father doesn’t like him.

Dumbledore puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Professor, I believe that Ms. Scamander could be an asset in the effort to keep our students safe.”

The headmaster looks at Elizabeth skeptically. “Albus,” Dippet starts condescendingly, “I encourage your teaching style, and I raised no argument when you asked to tutor Ms. Scamander in your free time. With that being said, I’m drawing a line in the sand. I will not have a child part of the protection process, much less one who is not old enough to attend this school.”

Elizabeth looks up at Dumbledore, she isn’t sure what the professor wants from her.

Dumbledore shakes his head at Dippet. “Elizabeth is special, she has a gift unique to only a handful of people.”

“I’ve seen extraordinary gifts before,” Dippet says. “The Blacks have metamorphmagus genes, I’ve come across many seers, that second-year Slytherin boy is a parseltongue.”

“Yes,” Dumbledore says, “but the ability to see into another’s mind-”

Dippet raises his hand to stop his speech. “Legilimency is a skill that can be learned. Being a seer, metamorphmagus, or parseltongue cannot be learned. When Ms. Scamander shows skill in one of those, then we will talk.”

Dumbledore sighs. “You’re making a mistake.”

“A mistake?” Dippet leans back in his chair and raises an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Elizabeth says softly. She’s nervous because she’s never met this man, but he’s insulted her abilities so she’s speaking up. “You think that I’m unrealistic with my goals and I’m too much of an outlier. At first, I wasn’t sure why you thought that, but then I realized.” Elizabeth looks into Dippet’s mind and views herself in his eyes. Instead of seeing herself, she sees a fifteen-year-old boy with tears in his eyes. A dead jarvey lays on Dippet’s desk and the boy is too focused staring at the creature rather than what the charms professor is saying. Dippet shakes his head disapprovingly before having him dragged off to meet with the headmaster. “You think I’m exactly like my dad.”

“My opinion of Newton Scamander is how you describe,” Dippet acknowledges, “he is unrealistic with his goals and he is too much of an outlier. That man has caused international havoc and he is stumbling through life, carried by more luck than I ever thought possible for one man to have. I don’t know you enough to call you the same,” Dippet says, “but I know that there was a time that Newton Scamander stood on the other side of this desk next to Albus Dumbledore and instead of seeing someone who knew what he wanted, I saw a scared and confused child. That is how you are the same as your father.”

Elizabeth stares at Dippet with wide eyes while Dumbledore just shakes his head. “We win this war by means of cooperation, rather than pushing away those who can help the most.” Dumbledore guides Elizabeth out of Dippet’s office.

* * *

“Is there a reason for this level of secrecy?” Newt asks as he steps into his brother’s office. After taking Elizabeth to her lesson with Dumbledore, Newt came home to a letter sitting on the table. It took a good hour to get around the wards surrounding the paper before it revealed that Theseus wanted to talk to him over lunch.

Theseus paces in his office, not looking as his brother speaks to him. “It reflects the seriousness of this conversation. I figured you wouldn’t want people to know that we were discussing anything.”

Dread fills Newt’s stomach as he sits down in a chair, Theseus keeps pacing. “Is something wrong with Tina?”

“Tina’s fine,” Theseus stops and faces him. “Tina’s the one who thought we should talk. I think it’s a bit insane. I’ve always been honest with you and I figured that while you may keep things from me, you wouldn’t bring other people into it too.”

Newt sticks his hand in his pocket. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” his heart twists in his chest. He’s not getting upset that Theseus might know about Yusuf and Bunty’s mission, he’s upset because Theseus is talking down to him and, more importantly, that Tina betrayed his trust.

Theseus rubs his eyes with his fingers tiredly. “What did Bunty and Yusuf find?”

Newt sinks into the chair, Pickett sticks his head out of Newt’s breast pocket before sensing the tension and ducking back inside. “I don’t want anything getting out to the ministry.”

“You need to stop this!” Theseus says, grabbing the other chair in front of the desk and dragging it to sit directly across from his brother. “The ministry is here to help! We can’t stop Grindelwald if everyone keeps information from each other. You want to know why the ministry is so repressive of you and your ideas?”

“I already know why the minist-” Newt starts before Theseus gives him a glare.

“You don’t communicate, Newt. You go off with the intention of doing good, but then you end up in terrible situations with no backup because you think you have everything handled. News flash little brother, you don’t have it under control. Grindelwald has got to have a target on you since you’re on the impossibly short list of people who have bested him. Let the ministry protect you. Let me protect you.”

“You don’t understand,” Newt says. “The ministry’s response to everything they don’t like is to just kill it and move on to the next thing. There’s no morality. If Grindelwald wasn’t threatening the social standings of the wizarding world, the ministry would gladly look away. You want me to trust the ministry? The ministry can’t trust itself. Any wrong move is perceived as an alliance to Grindelwald, any idea that falls in the middle ground between the ministry and Grindelwald is viewed as treason. Every person is ranked based on how valuable they would be to the war effort.”

“You’re seeing things all wrong!” Theseus protests. “There’s stress because of the wizarding war and the impending muggle war. It may be tense at the ministry, but without it, there would be anarchy. Nothing’s perfect, Newt. Nothing is perfect.”

“If I tell you what Bunty and Yusuf found,” Newt bargains, “you’ll lift my travel ban.”

“The travel ban that you break all the time?” Theseus asks. “The travel ban that relates directly back to my point on how you need the ministry to have your back so you don’t run off and have another Paris incident?”

“Yes,” Newt says simply. “That would be the one.”

“You’re insane,” Theseus falls back against his chair and covers his face with his hands. “Why can’t you just let us protect you? Tina and I can help you so much more with our resources.”

“Speaking of Tina,” Newt says, trying to hold back on letting his hurt show in his voice, “why don’t you ask her what Bunty and Yusuf were doing?”

“She thought I should ask you, but seeing as this is going nowhere and that information is important, maybe I will ask her.”

Newt stands from his chair and leaves the room, ignoring Theseus as he calls after him.

* * *

“Do you think you’re better than us?” Rudolph asks, cornering Nathaniel in a hallway.

Nathaniel scoffs in his face. “No,” he says, addressing both Rudolph and the group of boys behind him. “I know I’m better than you.”

The cool wood of Rudolph’s wand is quickly pressed against Nathaniel’s throat. “You’re disgusting half-blood and yet you think you’re good enough to walk these halls.”

Nathaniel meets him with a hard glare. “I’m not a half-blood,” he sneers, even though he isn’t entirely sure who his father is. “My mother and I are devoted to this cause, that’s why we walk these halls. You’ve only been here for two years, I’ve been here my entire life. You don’t know anything.”

“Rumor has it,” Rudolph smirks, “that you’re being sent away.”

“On a mission,” Nathaniel says proudly. “A mission was given to me, personally, by Grindelwald. Tell me, Rudy, have you ever had a one on one meeting with Grindelwald?”

“You’re walking a thin line Goldstein,” Rudolph presses his wand more forcefully against Nathaniel. “Five of us and one of you. Do you really want to cause a scene?”

“You don’t want to cause a scene,” Nathaniel responds calmly. “You haven’t given a demand that I need to follow to get you to lower your weapon and you have the tip of your wand facing a wall, not facing me. Unless you’re trying to choke me, which would be stupid because I’m sure my neck is stronger than your wand, you’re just trying to look cool in front of your friends.”

Rudolph curls his less dominant hand into a fist and punches Nathaniel in the stomach. Nathaniel makes a soft noise before falling onto the ground. Rudolph glares at him before nodding to his friends to leave.

Nathaniel clenches his fist and grabs his wand out of the inside of his coat pocket. He jumps onto this feet and chases Rudolph down the hall, picturing the look of shock on Rudolph’s face when Nathaniel stuns each of his friends before getting into a duel one on one with the older boy. It’d get so intense that Nathaniel would have to jump up on a chair in the hall and kick his leg out, knocking Rudolph out as the older boy runs right into him. Rudolph would fall to the ground in pain and all of his friends would be in awe of Nathaniel’s resourcefulness, magical power, and quick thinking.

A stunning spell is on his lips, but before he can do anything, Nathaniel gets knocked down by two of Rudolph's friends. The boys laugh in his face before disappearing around a corner. Nathaniel lays on the ground, his body feeling numb. Tears of humiliation well in his eyes, but he doesn’t have enough physical control of his body to stop the tears from falling. He’s just glad that he’s alone.

* * *

“Are we going to do the lesson now?” Elizabeth asks as she runs to keep up with Dumbledore. They’re being lead to a part of the castle that Elizabeth has never been before. “Professor?”

Dumbledore stops and gives her the chance to catch up. “The Headmaster won’t allow you to sit in on classes or follow around the students who have deflected family members, you’re not to be used for the war effort.”

Elizabeth nods. She would protest that she’s capable of being helpful, but she’s terrified of the concept of war. She’ll happily pretend like it’s entirely Dippet’s fault that she can’t be useful.

“I do, however, have a task for you.” Dumbledore leads her down several steps of stairs. Elizabeth wonders how the students are in a constant state of exhaustion.

“What is it?” She asks, having to run again to reach him.

“There’s this boy,” Dumbledore explains. “He grew up not knowing about magic and now he’s a student here. Something about this boy is,” Dumbledore pauses to think of how to explain it, “different. There’s something dark inside his mind and I need to understand how best to help him.”

Elizabeth smiles, glad to have something productive to do. “Do I get to tell him what I’m doing?”

“No,” Dumbledore says gently. “It’s best that Tom doesn’t know that you’re reading his mind. I want to know what he’s thinking without him knowing he’s being heard.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth agrees as they reach the dungeons of the castle. A cool breeze seems to come from nowhere and Elizabeth appreciates it blowing across her warm face. Dumbledore must have taken them down a back way because it’s only now that they start to encounter students. Most of them are wearing silver and green ties. They look at Elizabeth curiously, wondering who she is and why she’s there.

Elizabeth grins at them, puffing out her chest as she lets herself feel important.

Dumbledore leads them to a stone wall and Elizabeth looks at him curiously. Elizabeth doesn’t pay attention as Dumbledore says the password, she watches in awe as the bricks slide away to reveal the Slytherin common room. Following Dumbledore inside, Elizabeth presses close to his side as more students show up. Their thoughts are all starting to get overwhelming. Shifting her magic, Elizabeth pulls her image of the basement and sighs in relief as silence falls over her mind. 

“Tom,” Dumbledore says, walking up to a table. The table of twelve and thirteen-year-olds look up at Dumbledore. “Can I ask you a favor?”

The boy in the middle stands up slowly. “Of course, Professor,” Tom says coolly.

Elizabeth smiles at Tom and is met with one in the return. Tom’s smile feels fake, but Elizabeth assumes it’s just because Dumbledore told her that there was something dark about him.

Dumbledore leads the two of them away from the group of Tom’s friends. They leave the common room and stand in a secluded part of the dungeon corridor. “Elizabeth,” Dumbledore explains to Tom, “is interested in magical creatures. I told her that you’re a parseltongue and she begged for a chance to get to meet you. Since I have papers to grade, I was hoping that you could keep her entertained for a while.”

Elizabeth scoffs internally, she’s not some child who needs to be babysat. “Snakes are my favorite,” she says, playing along. “My second favorite is the wampus cat,” Elizabeth throws in, not wanting Gamma to think that she was lying when she told him that he was her favorite beast.

Tom doesn’t look amused but he reluctantly nods to Dumbledore. Elizabeth drops her occlumency and because her magic is still shifting back, she can only really read the thoughts on the top of his mind. Tom thinks Dumbledore is foolish for trusting him with a young girl. Getting her strength back, Elizabeth looks deeper. She catches glimpses of children crying in some dark cave. Tom stands before them, basking in his own power.

Elizabeth looks at Dumbledore with wide eyes, wondering why he ever thought this was a good idea. The professor dismisses Elizabeth’s worrying look and turns down the corridor, leaving her alone with Tom.

* * *

Newt sits on a bench in the ministry and watches the people below walk around. It’s the same bench he always sat at when he used to fight for his travel ban back and now it’s where he goes when he’s frustrated with the government. Pickett pulls at his hair, probably trying to recreate the braids that Elizabeth sometimes has in her hair.

“Newt?” Pickett squeaks, and Newt feels him turn around to look at Tina. Keeping his gaze on the people below, Newt ignores his wife.

“I’m sorry,” Tina says, sitting on the bench next to him. Newt keeps his body turned away from her. “He had a right to know, I only wanted what’s best for all of us.”

“You don’t get to decide what’s best for me behind my back,” Newt says softly. “I’m capable of making rational decisions.”

“I know you are,” Tina says, gently placing her hand on Newt’s shoulder. “I wanted to keep it between us, but your brother has been so paranoid lately. The war’s getting to him in ways that he’s not willing to admit.”

“I know what Theseus’s paranoia looks like,” Newt stays tense, but he doesn’t shift to move her hand away. “I know what he was like even before the first war. He’s been through a lot and I know what his limits are. You should have trusted that I know my own brother.”

Tina frowns, feeling as though this is some backhanded away of Newt accusing her of not knowing her own sibling. Pushing that thought aside, Tina decides to focus on one thing at a time. “I don’t know what else to say,” she says honestly. She’s already made her point.

“It’s not about Theseus,” Newt says, watching out of the corner of his eye as Pickett climbs onto Tina’s hand and up her arm. “I’m upset that you did this behind my back when I asked you not to.”

“Were you really going to leave?” She asks softly.

“I still think I should,” he confesses. “If we can track the werewolf and find him, we could bring him back here. In a safe environment, we can let Lizzie see if werewolves really do keep their mind as they transform.”

Tina sighs heavily and looks down at the people as well. “What would it accomplish?”

“It’d tell us what steps we need to take to prevent an outbreak and what we need to do to work towards a possible cure. It would be a breakthrough for the beast division… the ministry would like that.”

“I don’t care what the ministry wants,” Tina says tiredly. “Working the ministry is to help me keep my husband and children safe and to help me find my sister. I want to help the wizarding world and I believe in our institutions, but at the end of the day, if I had to choose between when is right and what is easy, I know what I would do.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go together?” Newt asks, turning to look at her. “Just us against the world, on our own mission to protect the people around us.”

Tina laughs in disbelief. “Are you asking this for real?”

Newt shakes his head and scoots closer to her. “No, we have children to look after.”

“Do you think we had kids too soon?” Tina asks. “I don’t regret it for a single second, but sometimes I wonder if we made the right choice to have children while we’re in fear of being attacked by a lunatic.”

“We let Grindelwald win if we let him control more of our lives than he already has,” Newt says. “Lizzie and Phoenix are safe and we’ll keep them that way.”

“They would be devastated if you left,” Tina says, making eye contact so Newt knows she’s being serious. “I would be devastated if you left.”

“I’m devastated when you go on your missions,” Newt says. “Only one of us can go out every day risking our lives.”  
“Because one of us has to be there for the kids,” Tina concludes. They came to this agreement when Tina was pregnant with Elizabeth.

“I don’t know what to do,” Newt says. “I knew that I would have to give up on travel when Lizzie was born. I agreed to it, we had a plan.”

“But now you’re going stir crazy, you miss the field, and you can’t sit back when you know something terrible could happen,” Tina moves her hand off his shoulder and takes his hand into her own.

“Let me go,” Newt asks her quietly. “Please, Tina. I’m losing my mind being cooped up. The ministry gives me creatures to look after sometimes, but it’s not the same.”  
“Who would watch the creatures if both you and Bunty are gone?” Tina asks, reaching for a reason to convince him to stay.

“You can, and Nagini, and the children,” Newt says. “I can take the more difficult ones to care for with me in the case.”

Tina lets out a shaky breath. “I need to think, Newt. We can’t make a decision right now when we’re both this upset.”

Newt nods and carefully takes Pickett off of her shoulder.

“I’ll see you tonight,” Tina promises. She stands from the bench and kisses his forehead. “I need to get back to work.”

“I love you,” Newt calls after her as she walks away.

Tina turns and smiles at him. “I love you too.”

* * *

Nathaniel lays face first in his bed and tries to ignore the knocking on his door. “Go away!” He calls out. It’s only in the past few minutes that he’s managed to stop crying. He feels like an idiot and his ego is severely bruised.

“Nathan,” Aurelius says through the door. “I brought you dinner.”

With an exaggerated groan, Nathaniel rolls himself out of bed and walks across the room. He throws open the door and look at Aurelius tiredly. “Oh,” Nathaniel says, perking up, “they served dessert tonight?” He takes the tray from Aurelius.

The man looks at him with concern. “Are you okay?” Aurelius asks. “Are you hurt?”

Nathaniel shrugs, stepping back to allow Aurelius into his room. “I got into a fight a little while ago. No big deal though, you should see them. I doubt they’ll show their faces around here again.”

“Who did you fight with?” Aurelius asks. “Should I get Fawkes?”

“No!” Nathaniel says defensively. “I don’t need your help. It was really stupid and it’s over now. Can’t you just leave me alone?”

Aurelius’s shoulders sag and he huddles into himself as he usually does when people raise their voices around him. Nathaniel sighs and sits at his desk to eat, giving Aurelius a moment to pull himself together.

“You know,” Aurelius says, “you’re not all powerful.”

Nathaniel grips his fork tightly. “I should be. Other people don’t understand the world and how we can help them. They’re blinded by their prejudices and I have the honor to be trusted enough to directly further the cause.”

“What’s your mission?” Aurelius asks, sitting on the corner of his bed.

“I’m going undercover,” Nathaniel says proudly. “To find some journal that Dumbledore wrote and to understand the mindset of those who haven’t yet realized the potential of the cause.”

“Do you think that you’ll be immune to bullying?” Aurelius asks curiously. “What will you do away from all the people who love you and look after you?”

“I’m strong,” Nathaniel says, purposely turning further away so Aurelius can’t get another look at his tear stained cheeks. “Those Hogwarts kids are idiots. Their words will mean very little to me.”

Aurelius stands. “Remember that you can write whenever you need to. Even if your mother responds in an alias, you’ll know that she’s thinking of you.”

Nathaniel nods. “Thanks for dinner.”

* * *

Elizabeth sits awkwardly across from Tom, who ignores her completely. The Hogwarts student lead her to a study nook and now he’s working patiently on a potions essay while Elizabeth watches. She doesn’t want to get too deep into his mind when she isn’t sure just how long Dumbledore will be gone. If he senses that she’s snooping, he might get angry at her.

“Is Slytherin a cool house?” She eventually asks, trying to make polite conversation so Tom likes her.

“Slytherin has the proudest history out of the four,” Tom says, dipping his quill into his ink jar. “It is an honor to be picked by Slytherin.”

“My dad was a Hufflepuff,” she tells him, “and my uncle was a Ravenclaw.”

Tom sighs. “Are you going to let me work, or are you going to keep chattering?”

“I’m just trying to be nice,” Elizabeth says carefully, getting the impression that she’s walking a thin line.

“Tell me about your family,” Tom says, even though it feels like more of a demand.

“Why?” Elizabeth asks curiously. Nobody really asks each other about their families, it was more or less common knowledge where everyone came from.

“I’m curious,” Tom says smoothly. “Are you a pureblood or is Dumbledore introducing muggle-borns earlier than he originally was?”

“I’m pureblooded,” Elizabeth responds. She knows that the only reason the Scamanders aren’t at the highest level of pure blooded superiority is because a few of her direct ancestors are squibs. The Goldsteins are pureblooded from their emergence in America as it’s strictly against the law there to marry muggles. “From the Scamander family.”

Tom turns to dig around in his bag. He produces a worn, second-hand, copy of  _ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them _ . “This Scamander family?” He asks, pointing to her father’s name on the front cover of the book.

“Uh-huh,” Elizabeth says easily. “That’s my dad.”

“So you have extensive knowledge of magical creatures?” Tom asks her.

“I guess so,” Elizabeth says. “Not as much as dad. Nobody knows as much dad, except maybe Bunty.”

Tom flips open his book to the page on the acromancula. “Could this creature be deadly?”

Elizabeth nods slowly. “Yeah, they eat people if they’re threatened. Their venom is wicked and some of the smarter ones can talk.”

Tom seems to be satisfied with this answer, he puts his book away. “Why are you here?”

“I’m a magical prodigy,” she says, “and I’m really good at wandless magic?” Elizabeth mentally kicks herself for throwing in the wandless magic.

“Show me,” Tom says, clearly interested.

“Dumbledore said I’m not supposed to,” Elizabeth says. “You still haven’t shown me parseltongue.”

Tom heaves a deep sigh before hissing at her. Probing into his mind, Elizabeth can immediately tell that he was calling her an ignorant child. Figuring that she’s already this far, and a bit angry that he insulted her, Elizabeth take the chance to dig deeper into his mind.

Tom’s thoughts, unlike every other person she’s met, are connected by how they could fit together in some scheme. There’s no emotion to help guide Elizabeth through the maze that is Tom’s mind. A few images come before her, there’s a more detailed account of what happened in the cave, an older woman standing before Tom with a belt, the first time Tom saw Hogwarts and a realization that people will do whatever Tom wants if he plays his cards right.

Elizabeth soon realizes that she’s not going to get further than that without more practice, Elizabeth pulls out of his mind. Only a few seconds have passed since Tom used parseltongue at her, but he still looks annoyed by Elizabeth’s lack of response.

“That was cool,” Elizabeth says, forcing a bit too much enthusiasm in her voice.

Tom gets up from the table. “Follow me.”

Elizabeth hurries after him as he strides down the corridors. People give them strange looks, but Tom acts as though he’s not aware of Elizabeth’s attempts to keep pace with him. Leading her through the potions classroom, Tom knocks confidently on the professor’s office.

A large man with a mustache opens the door and smiles at Tom. “Tom! What a pleasant surprise,” he peeks around Tom and sees Elizabeth. “I see you’ve brought a friend.”

“Well Professor,” Tom says charmingly. “I’m supposed to be watching over Ms. Scamander, but I’m afraid I can’t keep her properly entertained while I study. I know this is asking a lot sir, but I was hoping you could chat with her until Dumbledore comes to collect her?”

From reading the man’s mind, Elizabeth can tell that the delighted spark in the professor’s eyes is from an eagerness to build connections with her family. Elizabeth smiles at the man, both happy to be away from Tom, and also pleased to have an opportunity to brag.

* * *

Tina holds Elizabeth’s hand as they appear in front of their home. Elizabeth leans against her mother’s side, clearly exhausted.

“You must have had an intense lesson,” Tina comments as they head up the stairs. Elizabeth was too tired to beg for Honeydukes as they walked through Hogsmeade to the official apparition point.

“Did you know that we’re like the Weasley family?” Elizabeth asks as Tina unlocks the door.

“In what way?” Tina asks as they step inside.

“Well,” Elizabeth says through a yawn, “we used to be like the Weasleys, but then I messed it up.”

“How did you mess it up?”

“Because the Scamanders and the Weasleys are both pureblooded wizarding families with over a century of not having a blood-related female born in the line. Then I messed it up for the Scamanders by being born.”

Tina raises an eyebrow at her. “Where did you hear that?”

“Professor Slughorn,” Elizabeth answers, rubbing her eyes.

Tina sighs, figuring she’ll get more information from Elizabeth later. “Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll wake you up for dinner.”

Elizabeth nods and goes upstairs. Phoenix looks up from where he’s playing with toys on the floor. He runs to follow Elizabeth. From upstairs, Tina can hear the children start to fight, but she figures she should just let them sort it out. She collapses on the couch next to Newt, who looks equally tired.

“Theseus said the ministry would cooperate with what you thought best for tracking the werewolf,” Tina says, burying her face in Newt’s chest. Newt loosely wraps his arms around her. 

“He really said that?” Newt asks.

“Well,” Tina says, her voice muffled against the fabric of Newt’s shirt, “I suggested it and may have convinced him it was the best thing to do.”

Newt smiles and holds her tighter. “Are you giving me permission to go then?”

Tina sighs. “The minister either wants to send an auror team that I’d be on, or they’d send you and Bunty with ministry resources.”

“So either way, one of us has to go,” Newt concludes.  
Tina pulls away so she can look him in the eye. “This is the last time I’ll ask this. Do you have to go?”

Newt pauses before nodding. “I can’t let this happen in good conscious, especially if you’d be going instead. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I want it on the record that I hate this,” Tina says. “Promise me that you’ll be safe.”

Newt takes her hands. “I promise.”


	10. The Bonds Between

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt goes to track the werewolf with Bunty while his family copes with his absence.

Bunty pulls her coat closer to her body as she follows behind Newt. Her boots sink dangerously in the mud and it’s taking most of her strength to pull herself free with every step. Newt’s not doing all that much better. Bunty’s grateful that she can step into his footprints and save some energy. So far, they’ve made almost no progress, but it’s only been a week so Bunty’s not giving up any hope.

They heard rumors of a dark monthly howl in a rural area in southern France. This finds the two traveling on a ruined path as they travel from village to village. Apparition doesn’t help them if they’re not sure where they’re apparating too. The muggles hunt regularly in the woods and the ministry would throw a fit if they had to obliviate one of them.

Spotting a large rock up ahead, Bunty speaks to her companion for the first time since they set out that morning. “Let’s rest up there for a minute?”

Newt nods and adjusts the case in his hands. It had been hitting against the side of his leg and Bunty’s sure he’ll have a bruise on his thigh. Climbing up onto the rock, Newt holds his hand out for Bunty to grab onto. Bunty grasps onto him and moves to heave herself onto the rock. Her boot sticks to the ground and Newt pulls her right out of it. Bunty sighs and looks down as her boot sinks halfway into the mud. “This is hell,” Bunty tells Newt as the cool breeze gets through her sock.

Newt pulls out his wand and discreetly levitates her boot up to them. “It wouldn’t be hell if it wasn’t pouring rain every night.”

Bunty shrugs and puts her foot back into the boot. “It wouldn’t be hell if we were looking for a creature rather than a person.”

Newt lays down on the rock and stares up at the sky. “It wouldn’t be hell if we could apparate.”

“It wouldn’t be hell if we had real beds to sleep in rather than the hammocks in the case,” Bunty says as she rolls her shoulders to get the knot out of her back.

“It wouldn’t be hell if Tina was here,” Newt mumbles.

“It wouldn’t be hell if Nagini was here,” Bunty agrees.

* * *

“I need you to cooperate,” Tina says to Phoenix, trying not to get frustrated. The toddler screams his protest as he holds onto his bed frame.

“I don’t want to!” Phoenix yells, tears welling in his eyes.

Tina rubs her temple tiredly. It’s routine that Phoenix hates getting in the bath. Usually, she and Newt and wrestle him into the bath in just a few minutes, but it’s going on fifteen minutes without Newt’s help.

“You like the bath,” she tells him tiredly. “When it’s time to get out of the bath, you cry because you’re having so much fun.”

Phoenix whimpers and holds on tighter to the bed, even though Tina’s not reaching for him. She’s sworn that she’d never use magic to manipulate her children into doing what she wants, but Phoenix is really starting to get on her nerves.

“I need you to step up,” Tina says to him. “I need your help now that your dad’s gone.”

Looking at her with his big brown eyes, Phoenix looks hopeless and sorrowful. His lip quivers as his head shakes. “Mama,” he cries softly. “I don’t want to.”

Tina shakes her head. “You need a haircut,” she tells him. His bangs almost cover his eyes and it’s starting to become a mullet in the back.

“No!” Phoenix dives to crawl under the bed. His feet kick out in case Tina tries to grab for them as he army crawls away from her.

“Fine!” Tina stands up. “Be dirty.”

Elizabeth looks at her from the doorway. “I think I should have a later bedtime.”

Tina sighs. “Not today Lizzie, please.”

“If I can have a later bedtime, I’ll help you get Phoenix in the bath,” Elizabeth bargains.

“You’re not in the position to make trades,” Tina says, remembering how Elizabeth threw a fit at dinner because Tina’s not as good of a cook as Newt. Elizabeth’s half the reason Phoenix needs a bath since she got him riled up to the point where he started throwing mashed potatoes everywhere.

Elizabeth scoffs and curls in on herself slightly. Because Tina is accustomed to the feel of her daughter’s magic, she can feel the subtle change. Throwing up her occlumency shields, Tina gives her daughter a stern glare. “Do not read my mind to manipulate me.” Her shields, while strong, are easily navigable to Elizabeth since she knows her mother so well. The shields are more so a warning than a block.

“We’re not ganging up on you,” Elizabeth says with a huff, “and we’re not lashing out because we’re upset that Dad is gone.”

Tina shakes her head. The children aren’t making any of this easy for her. “What else am I supposed to think then if you both refuse to cooperate and won’t tell me why you’re upset?”

“I’m not upset,” Elizabeth says defensively. “I’m the legilimens, not you.”

“Go to your room,” Tina says sternly. She just wants to get the kids ready for bed then call it a day.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Elizabeth protests.

“Elizabeth!” She snaps. “Go to your room!”

The six-year-old looks at Tina with wide eyes before running back to her room. The door slams loudly behind her.

“Bet’s in trouble,” Phoenix says in a singsong voice. He had climbed out from under the bed to watch his sister and mother argue. Tina turns on him and quickly lifts him up around the waist. Phoenix squirms against her. “Wait! I don’t want to.” Phoenix starts to cry as Tina refuses to give up her grip.

“You’re going to take a bath and then we’re going to bed,” she tells him sternly as she carries him to the bathroom, ignoring him as he fights to run off.

Tina quickly takes his clothes off and puts him in the bath. Phoenix glares and splashes at her. Using magic to dry herself, she looks him in the eyes. “Gideon Phoenix Scamander, you sit still or I will ground you.”

Phoenix crosses his arms in protest but allows his mother to give him the bath. He doesn’t want to get in trouble like Elizabeth.

* * *

_ “Is Mom mad at us?”  _ Phoenix thinks, formulating his thoughts to push the question out into the theoretical void.

Elizabeth catches his tether because a moment later he can almost hear his sister’s voice in his head.  _ “No, she’s not mad.” _

_ “Are you sure?”  _ Phoenix looks out the window and watches as the branches of a tree in the backyard tap against the window. An almost full moon hangs brightly in the sky. He wonders if his dad is looking at the moon right now too. He might be thinking of Phoenix the exact moment Phoenix is thinking of him.

_ “She’s frustrated,”  _ Elizabeth responds after a moment.  _ “She misses dad and you were mean to her.” _

Phoenix scoffs loudly in his empty room.  _ “You were meaner.”  _

_ “I was not!”  _ Elizabeth responds.

Getting out from under his covers, Phoenix turns on his bed to kick the exact spot on the wall where he knows Elizabeth is laying on the other side.

Elizabeth hits the wall back, startling Phoenix who wasn’t expecting retaliation. Phoenix climbs off of his bed and lays on the floor, creating some distance between him and his sister even though they’ve already discovered that they can communicate through, at most, three rooms.

Turning to look under his bed, Phoenix sees the toy niffler he lost a few days prior. He didn’t spot it when he was under their earlier, but he’s glad he sees it now. Phoenix crawls under the bed and retrieves his toy before going back to the middle of the room. He holds the toy close to his chest as he remembers how he would take care of his toy niffler while his dad took care of the real ones.

_ “Can I sleep with you?”  _ He thinks, hoping Elizabeth hasn’t gone to bed. Phoenix isn’t as skilled as his sister yet, so the only way he knows if his sister is listening is when she responds.

A few seconds later, Elizabeth opens the door to his room.  _ “Come on,”  _ she thinks to him, offering her hand. Phoenix jumps up and grabs her hand, keeping his niffler close with the other. Elizabeth leads him toward their parents’ room.

_ “Mom’s having a nightmare,”  _ Elizabeth thinks to him. Phoenix looks up at his sister before concentrating hard on their mother. He feels uneasy, uncomfortable, and scared. It isn’t terror, but it’s something that Phoenix doesn’t want to feel. Together, the two enter the room. Their mother holds their father’s pillow close to her chest as she sleeps.

Elizabeth crawls onto the bed and Phoenix is quick to follow. “Mom,” Elizabeth whispers, gently nudging their mother’s shoulder.

Tina wakes up and grabs her wand from under the pillow. “Lizzie, are you okay?”

Elizabeth nods. “Giddy had a nightmare,” she lies.

Phoenix gives her a hard glare, hating that she accused him of having a nightmare and that she called him by the name he hates.

“Oh Phoenix,” Tina takes her son into her arms and brushes her hand through his hair gently.

“Can I stay with you?” He asks softly, nuzzling closer to her. Usually, their parents don’t let them stay in bed with them, but tonight seems to be an exception.

“Of course,” Tina responds, pulling back the covers so Phoenix can lay with her.  Elizabeth bites her lip.

“You stay too,” Tina tells her daughter. “I’ll feel better if both of you were here.”

Elizabeth climbs under the covers beside Phoenix and pulls the blankets back up.

“Goodnight,” Tina tells them both as she puts her wand onto the nightstand. Phoenix smiles contently as he holds his toy niffler to his chest, happy to be near his mother and sister.

* * *

Newt looks up at the sky and watches as the moon peeks out periodically from behind the clouds. They’re about two days off from the full moon and they’ve come across nothing but dead ends. Newt couldn’t sleep, so he climbed out of the case and decided to spend the night traveling to the next village. Maybe, he thinks as he walks, he and Bunty can take shifts. Right now, his assistant is asleep in a hammock near the wampus cat. In the morning, she can ask around for leads in the village while he takes a nap.

When he was younger, it felt like freedom to walk alone in some distant forest. There was nowhere else in the world he needed to be but there. Back then, there was time to get to know locals, to study creatures he didn’t intend on seeing. He went back home when his mother or brother begged him to, but he never stayed for too long. His heart had belonged to nature.

Now, as he travels south on the path, he can’t help but feel that each step brings him further and further away from Tina and the children. There isn’t time to stop and enjoy the sights or the creatures. Phoenix’s birthday is in two weeks, and unless they manage to discover the werewolf in the next two day, he’ll miss it. 

It’s hard to imagine that Phoenix will be four, Newt feels as though it was just a little while ago that he held his son in his arms for the first time. Elizabeth was two when her brother was born and Newt remembers holding Elizabeth in his arms as they introduced her to Phoenix. Soon, they’ll be in Hogwarts and then not long after that, they’ll be adults.

Newt stops in his tracks as he imagines what the kids would be like when they’re older. He hopes they’re both like Tina. The children already have her fierce determination and her passion for a personalized morality. Both Phoenix and Elizabeth have Tina’s eyes.

Adjusting the handle of the case in his hand, Newt sets off walking again. If Tina was here, he reasons to himself, the trip would probably progress more slowly. His wife doesn’t have the same tracking skills that he and Bunty have so they’d have to waste time teaching her. He wouldn’t mind teaching her though, Newt thinks. The plan, before the children were born, was that when the war was over, they’d drop everything and travel around the world.

On the horizon, Newt can see the next village. He picks up his pace, hoping that there’s an inn so that he and Bunty can get some rest away from some of the nocturnal creatures.

* * *

“Before I have you delve deeper into a single person’s mind, I want you to be able to withstand being in a crowded space with your occlumency down.”

Elizabeth nods but doesn’t seem to have processed anything Dumbledore has just said to her. She lays her head on the desk and chews at her lip.

“Is something wrong?” Dumbledore asks. Usually, when Elizabeth is frustrated with the lesson, she throws a fit. She’ll verbalize and make anyone within a radius know she’s upset. Elizabeth’s silence is more worrying than her tears.

“No,” Elizabeth says softly. “I don’t want to do a lesson today.”

Dumbledore sighs and focuses on his own legilimency. He’s still in the process of learning, but he’s steadily getting better. Elizabeth’s shields are down and he gently starts to read her thoughts. The only thing Dumbledore has done as made her subconsciously aware that he’s listening in. She turns his thoughts toward reading his mind and Dumbledore feels a disorienting experience as he reflects back into his own mind. Elizabeth’s too focused on reading him and he suspects she’s reflecting back into her own mind as well. Dumbledore presses harder, curious about how this works.

A moment later, Dumbledore feels a door slam in his face. Elizabeth lifts her head off the desk, her occlumency shields firmly in place. Dumbledore still feels disoriented and sits down. Elizabeth seems unbothered. She pushes her hair out of her face and lays her head back down on the table now that her mentor is out of her mind.

“You’ve had this happen before,” he observes.

Elizabeth gives a tired shrug. “It’s more intense when Phoenix and I do it.”

“Fascinating,” Dumbledore says to himself, wondering what possibilities there will be when the Scamander siblings are fully trained and working together.

“Can we please not have a lesson today?” Elizabeth asks again.

“It’s rare that you turn down a lesson,” Dumbledore acknowledges. “Tell me why you feel this way.”

“Because,” Elizabeth says, almost on the verge of tears, “I just don’t like legilimency anymore.”

“It is your talent,” Dumbledore explains. “You and your brother are members of a rare club. People like me, who practice the skill for years, will never reach the level of mastery that you will grow into.”

“I’m rubbish,” Elizabeth expresses, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. “Legilimency is supposed to be right, but I’m doing it all wrong.”

“How are you doing it wrong?” Dumbledore asks.

Elizabeth wipes the tears away with the back of her hand. “Dippet was thinking things about my dad, but I said the wrong thing. All of the thoughts were right in front of me and I still pieced them together wrong. Tom’s mind was really hard to read because I wasn’t sure how it all connected, but I had it all right at my fingertips and I still couldn’t do it. Dad wasn’t supposed to leave. He was trying to decide what to do and I saw all of his arguments and I wanted him to stay but he didn’t.” Her shoulders shake as she starts to cry again.

Dumbledore rests his hand on her back. “Bias, I’m afraid, gets to us all. The best you can do is acknowledge its influence and take all of your conclusions with a grain of salt.”

“I don’t want any bias,” Elizabeth sobs. “I want it to be right.”

“I know how you feel,” Dumbledore says, drifting off into his own thoughts. “Bias may be the main antagonist in this war.”

Elizabeth ignores him as she continues to cry.

* * *

“You have to put some elbow grease into it,” Jacob explains as he expertly kneads the dough in front of him.

Phoenix stands on the stool next to him and watches him intently. “I don’t have grease. I got all cleaned up.”

“It’s a figure of speech,” Jacob says easily. He places the dough in front of his honorary nephew. “You try it.”

Pressing his hands into the dough, Phoenix pushes down and laughs as it comes up between his fingers.

“Alright,” Jacob says fondly. “Now try to knead it as I did.”

“When do we get to eat it?” Phoenix asks as he clumsily balls the dough up.

“I don’t think we’ll have time to fire this one up since we have other orders. This is a practice one.”

Phoenix mushes the dough up more in his hands. “I want the erumpent for lunch.”

“You’ll have earned the erumpent after all the help you’re giving me today,” Jacob responds as he wipes flour off on his apron. “You keep working and I’ll be back in a moment.”

Jacob goes to the front of the bakery and makes sure things are running smoothly. Luca, his assistant is wiping down the front counter.

“I had to rework the warming spell on the display,” Luca explains. “I noticed that the occamies were cooling too quickly.”

Jacob nods, he isn’t too sure how the magic works anyway. “Good, we don’t want those getting cold.”

After refusing to go back to New York without Queenie, Jacob stayed with Newt until he could get back on his feet. Tina went back to America to resign from MACUSA and transfer into Theseus’s department, and when she left, Jacob gave her all the necessary papers to sell the bakery. When Tina came back, Newt helped him open a new bakery in a magical district. Their customers are a blend of magical and non-magical people.

Smiling at an elderly non-magical couple as they come in, Jacob gives Luca a pat on the back before going to check on Phoenix.

Phoenix has a frown on his face and a chunk of the dough in his hand. There’s a smudge of dough around his lips and Jacob knows he tried it raw.

“Bread dough isn’t as tasty when it’s not finished,” Jacob comments as he grabs a rag to clean the boy.

“I don’t like it,” Phoenix decides, scrunching his nose as Jacob cleans his face.

“I used to eat the dough all the time when I was your age, so my babcia would have to put it just out of my reach,” Jacob says, remembering it all so fondly.

“I’m going to be a baker,” Phoenix says confidently as he turns his attention to the chunk of deformed dough on the counter. “I’ll make it super quick with magic.”

“The true magic of baking is love and passion,” Jacob says. That’s why he makes all of his creations by hand and only uses magic to keep it fresh longer.

Phoenix hums softly. “I’m always using magic. I know what everyone is thinking.”

“I know you do, Nixon.” Jacob ruffles his hair.

* * *

Tina looks at the file on her desk. She’s read the page at least four times, but she isn’t processing any of the information. Newt, by ministry orders, isn’t allowed to send her any letters in case the werewolf catches on to their mission by reverse tracking the owls. Tina can’t but fear that Newt’s lying injured in some ditch, with his life slowly draining away. If he isn’t laying in a ditch, maybe he’s experiencing his last few days before he gets bit and has to run away for her and the children’s safety. Maybe Grindelwald captured him and is holding him hostage. Newt, of course, is probably trying to withhold as much information as possible, but Mercy Lewis, he’s in so much pain.

“Goldstein,” Hanson waves his hand in front of her face, “are you still with us?”

“Yes, I’m still here,” Tina sighs and blinks her eyes a few times to refocus them on the file. “What do you need?”

“Nothing,” Hanson says, his feet thrown up on his desk across from hers. “You just looked like you weren’t somewhere pleasant.”

“Newt hasn’t been gone a week and I’m starting to lose my mind,” Tina confesses, knowing that if anyone would understand, it would be Hanson. The man’s ‘best friend’ Stephen went somewhere undercover in Germany a few months ago and hasn’t been heard from.

“Yeah,” Hanson says, getting a faraway look in his eyes. “It doesn’t get that much easier to have him gone, but you eventually stop thinking constantly that he’s on the other end of an unforgivable.”

“I’m sure he’s okay,” Tina offers, “he’s one hell of a good auror.”

“I’m sure Scamander Junior is okay too,” Hanson says with a smile, “I’m assuming you gotta be tough to grow up with the boss.”

“I’m assuming growing up with Theseus is where Newt learned his patience and his goodwill with all things society would consider crazy.”

“Please,” Theseus’s voice makes them both jump. They turn to face their boss who stands beside their desks. “Leta is at least halfway responsible.”

“Speaking of which,” Tina says, finding that Leta can only be talked about with the Scamander brothers when one of them brings her up first, “Dumbledore mentioned something about Newt, Leta, and something about Ravenclaw tower?”

Theseus laughs out loud. “Those two took a chalkboard to the top of Ravenclaw tower and sled down the stairs with it and almost took out all the fourth year Ravenclaws on the way down.”

“Why not the astronomy tower?” Hanson asks. “It’s much taller,” he adds for Tina who looks confused.

“The steps are too tightly spiraled,” Theseus says. “Although I suspect it had something to do with the Ravenclaws making derogatory remarks about Leta and a few Ravenclaws took Newt’s cat as a prank.”

“Was your brother’s cat an actual cat or was it a kneazle?” Hanson asks.

“Regular cat, but he mated with a kneazle.”

“Was this the cat your mother refused to allow Newt to take to the Eastern Front?” Tina asks.

“Scamander Junior wanted to take a cat to a warzone?” Hanson asks.

“Listen,” Theseus takes a seat in the chair next to Tina’s desk. “he wanted to take that cat with him when he worked with the dragons. As if those carnivores wouldn’t want to eat that thing alive. Mum had to search him to make sure he didn’t smuggle the cat with him.”

“What happened to the cat?” Hanson asks.

“He died when Newt was twenty-five,” Tina supplies, having heard this part of the story from her husband. “That cat was old though. I think he was sixteen.”

“Newt had to carry him everywhere, that cat was the bigger version of Pickett,” Theseus says, smirking as he remembers Newt showing up to family Christmas with the cat wrapped in a sling across his chest.

“That cat’s name was Gregory,” Tina tells Hanson, “it’s not the biggest take away from the story, but it’s important to me that you know that.”

“Better than what I thinking, I thought you were going to tell me that your son was named after that cat.”

“I would never name my son Greg,” Tina says, “I had to double check with Theseus and Helen that Elizabeth and Gideon weren’t names that used to belong to some of Newt’s creatures.”

“There was a Betsy,” Theseus says easily. “So don’t let Lizzie take that nickname.”

“We might already be on that downhill spiral, Phoenix calls her Bet.”

Both Theseus and Hanson go out of their way to make exaggerated looks of concern to each other.

Tina rolls her eyes. “You’re both the worst.” She grabs her file and starts to actually read it.

Theseus gives a nod of approval to Hanson now that Tina’s not looking. Hanson nods back and gives him a thumbs up.

* * *

The full moon rises without them consciously realizing it. Although she’s been under the light of the full moon twelve times a year her entire life, Bunty feels as though this moon should be different, as if the adrenaline coursing through her body should combine with the full moon should increase her power like some muggle urban legends imply. Lightning illuminates the forest and a moment later the crashing thunder comes barreling through. Rain pours relentlessly over them both as the wind bounces the case wildly in Newt’s hand. Bunty’s hair obstructs her vision, the bun in her hair had fallen out an hour previous. She stops to fix her hair, her head ducked low so the rain won’t get into her eyes.

Newt stands still just a few feet ahead of her. His shoulders are tucked inward and his legs are bent, he’s ready to move at a moment’s notice. Bunty’s heartbeat pounds loudly in her chest. She doesn’t know how Newt’s able to stand listening when her heart must be the only sound for miles beside the rain and thunder.

Another bolt of lightning hits the ground near them, a tree about half a mile to their left lights on fire before quickly being put out by the wind and rain. Before the thunder makes a noise, Newt has set off to the north. Bunty chases after him, the boom of the thunder accompanying their steps they make over roots and through puddles.

Newt stops abruptly in front of her, giving her no time to stop herself from running right into him. To stop herself from falling, she grabs onto the man’s shoulders and steadies her stance. Newt stands ridged in her grasp, his chest heaving as his eyes dart around the area in front of them.

“What is it?” She asks, her voice being thoroughly drowned out. Fear grips her as Newt doesn’t respond. Bunty holds onto him tighter, feeling water squeeze out of his soaking coat as she tightens her grasp.

“Newt?”

The man wipes his wand out if its holster and a moment later, Bunty finds herself on top of an incline about forty feet from where they just were.

“There’s something down there,” Newt practically yells so he can be heard over the rain. “Something big, I couldn’t get a good visual.”

Bunty nods and joins Newt as they try to clearly see the terrain below them. The rain makes it almost impossible to see and their methods of tracking are disturbed. For any other creature, they’d resign to give up for the night and try again later. 

Lightning strikes where they were standing a minute before. In the flash of light, Bunty sees the werewolf clear as day. Its teeth are barred as it growls up at them. Bunty summons her own wand as the werewolf disappears back into the rain and darkness. Newt stands close to her side. His wand is also raised. Taking shuddering breaths, Bunty tries to calm her heart rate, knowing that now is a bad time to panic. Newt seems to be doing the same, his wand shaking his hand, but Bunty isn’t sure if it’s nerves or cold. It’s probably a combination of both.

If it comes to it, Bunty thinks, she would jump in front of Newt to prevent him from getting bit. He’s one of her closest friends, and while she doesn’t love him like she did when she was younger, she still loves him as a friend. Besides that, Newt has a wife and children to go home to. Bunty has no one.

Newt finally steadies his wand as much as he possibly can with the wind trying to take it. The werewolf sees them, so it’s only a matter of waiting for him to make the first move. They only need to keep it in their sights until the sun rises. Below them, there is a growl, then a quick movement as the werewolf charges at them.

Both Newt and Bunty apparate separately. Tripping over a rock as she lands in her apparition spot, Bunty falls to the ground. She gets up before realizing in a panic that she’s dropped her wand. Newt’s nowhere to be seen and she can’t call out to him because the rain would drown her out or she’d attract the werewolf while completely unarmed.

* * *

Newt appears behind the werewolf and flinches when the beast runs headfirst into a tree. The werewolf growls again and turns to face him. “Let us help you!” Newt yells over the rain, choosing to give the werewolf the option to step down. “We can keep you from being a threat to others and we can help you get your life back.”

The creature charges at Newt again, making the wizard apparate away. After spotting the werewolf through the trees, Newt takes a moment to look away to see if he can find Bunty. The werewolf spots Newt and charges at him again, before Newt can even think to apparate, lightning strikes down, electrifying the werewolf.

Newt almost drops the case in shock as the creature lays motionless a few feet away from him. Approaching carefully, Newt sees the rise and fall of the creature’s chest. Newt casts thick and heavy restraints before opening the case. He and Bunty had made a temporary habitat for the werewolf in case they needed to capture it. Using a levitating charm, Newt lifts the beast into the case. He snaps it closed and takes a minute to catch his breath.

Standing up straight, Newt scans the landscape again for his assistant. “Bunty!” Newt stops and waits for a response. “Bunty!” He yells out again, not sure where she had apparated to. Newt points his wand to the sky and sends up red sparks, watching as the sparks make light in the darkness of the rain.

“Newt!” Turning to his left, Newt sees Bunty running toward him. She looks frantic as she joins him at his side. She throws his arms out in front of him as if protecting him from something.

He rests his hand on her arm. “The werewolf is in the case. It got struck by the lightning.”

“Oh,” Bunty responds, completely out of breath. “That’s good.”

“Let’s out get of here,” Newt gets ready to apparate before Bunty shakes her head.

“I lost my wand.”

Newt points his wand in the general direction Bunty appeared from. “Accio wand.”

A few seconds later, Bunty’s wand comes soaring through the trees. The woman catches it easily before it makes it to Newt’s hand.

Newt and Bunty apparate just outside of the nearest village, no muggles are around because of the storm. The two lean against each other as their adrenaline starts to wear off.

“Do you think this was a little too easy?” Bunty asks Newt once the rain starts to lighten.

“Maybe,” he responds, “we still need to question him when he transforms back.”

* * *

Elizabeth holds her brother’s hands as she sits across from him. Her legilimency is open and her brother is open to her too. The more each of them focuses, the less distinguishable the line between their consciousness becomes. Thoughts flow between them with an unknown origin, both of them with an equal level of understanding. Elizabeth's higher skill in legilimency compensates for Phoenix’s weaker abilities, emotions are heightened while the more solidified thoughts appear more abstract than they should.

Elizabeth squeezes Phoenix’s hands and tries to construct her occlumency shields around the both of them, just to make see if it’s possible. If she can use occlumency over both of them and Phoenix can use legilimency between them, then Elizabeth can prove to Dumbledore that it’s possible to use both legilimency and occlumency at the same time. Even beyond that, once she and Phoenix reach an equal skill level, bias will be less of a problem as they examine things together.

Phoenix makes a soft noise, as he shifts uncomfortably, he’s getting overwhelmed by Elizabeth’s thinking. Elizabeth takes a deep breath and starts to imagine the basement, picturing Phoenix standing there alongside her. Her magic starts shifting and the moment her occlumency locks into place, Elizabeth cuts the connection with her brother completely.

“It didn’t work,” Phoenix tells her as he lets go of her hands.

“I know,” she snaps, her frustration getting the best of her. Phoenix frowns at her, he looks away as tears well in his eyes. Elizabeth reaches out and pulls him into a hug, knowing that he’s feeling emotionally vulnerable just like she is. “Thanks for helping me, Giddy.”

Phoenix limply wraps his arms around her.


End file.
